Twenty Five Other Times Negi Made a Pactio
by OverMaster
Summary: I don't know if I'll ever be able to finish Unequally Rational or The Keys of the Kingdom. I might not. Or I might. Real life issues, sorry. But hopefully, I at least will be able to show you the rest of the Pactios that are supposed to take place in that continuity. Because this is much easier to write (I hope). Plays sort of loose with the Unequally canon. Thanks for your time.
1. Chapter 1

Hasegawa Chisame, Kasuga Misora, Hakase Satomi, Kakizaki Misa, Kagurazaka Asuna, Shiina Sakurako, Suzushiro Haruka, Saotome Haruna, Yukihiro Ayaka, Akashi Yuuna, Hasegawa Sora, Konoe Konoka, Sakurazaki Setsuna and Alice Liddell all loved Negi Springfield, to some level or another. After all, you didn't agree to stand for a boy your junior in an open ended likely dangerous quest that possibly could last for decades without holding some degree or another of affection for said boy. Sure, Asuna's affection was probably (in this continuity, this time) sisterly at best, and the other girls, _especially_ Ayaka, did their darn best to believe her whenever she would emphatically reassert that fact, but still.

It goes without saying most of the girls, and Negi himself, weren't what you could say too keen on the idea, often brought along by Chamo the ermine familiar, of adding more Ministra Magi to Negi's ever growing lineup of Alliance partners. It would have been more than what any of them (but Chamo) would have felt comfortable at all handling. The girls didn't want any more competition (although Haruna was of the opinion 'The more the merrier') and Negi didn't want to risk any more people and handling even more cumbersome team logistics (which partially meant the logistics of breaking as few hearts as possible once he embarked into his successful solo heroic career like his father).

However, there are times when such things are imposed upon you by forces beyond your control. Things like the dreaded… _plot_.

* * *

Akamatsu Ken and Kodansha created Mahou Sensei Negima.

I make no money from writing this fanfic.

* * *

 **Twenty Five Other Times Negi Made a Pactio**.

* * *

 **Adult Combat Counseling Room**.

* * *

Under the false, warm sun of Evangeline Mc Dowell's resort, three figures stood by the large main pool, two of them side by side and facing the smallest of the trio. While everybody else chattered and discussed at enough of a distance, the mistress of the house had called her disciple and his main partner aside, and now she had stopped right where she wanted, making them stop as well.

"Boya," Evangeline smirked, holding a ticket before him and a perplexed Chisame, "would you happen to remember this?"

"Ah, ah, yeah…" the boy in nothing but swimming trunks gasped. "That… that is our—"

The purple one-piece clad Chisame squinted while adjusting her glasses (despite the fact she didn't need them to read, but she had gotten the habit regardless) and made out the fine, tiny print on the ticket. "Evangeline A.K. Mc Dowell and Negi Springfield?" she read aloud. "Okay, what the hell have you two been doing this time?" she demanded to know.

Eva chuckled darkly while Negi closed his eyes in shame. "Oh? Hadn't your trusted Magister told you yet, Hasegawa Chisame? For shame, Boya! Well, if you need being told, it's a demon ticket that forcibly carries out a promise. If I use this, Boya will have to date me in the last day of the Festival. For as long as I want!"

".. oh," Chisame said. "You know, now you've said it… I can't really get angry after all. Weird! I suppose it's because that's what I've grown to expect from you…"

Evangeline snarled viciously. "Yes, I'm a filthy, degenerate person, I don't need being reminded, but thanks anyway and I mean it! Now, Boya, do you know what am I going to do with this?"

As the boy swallowed hard and sweated, trying to articulate a few words, Eva flashed a toothy grin and ripped the ticket to shreds between her fingers. "Master!" Negi finally said.

"Okay, now what was **that** about?" Chisame asked.

"Nothing," Evangeline replied. "It's just that, from the looks of it, Boya will be busy all through the final day too, and going in a date with someone whose mind will be elsewhere the whole time is such a drag. I deserve far better than that, don't you agree? Of course you do! So, I'll be a fair player and let Boya have his fun with Lingshen instead… for the time being. Later, I'll show him what a _real_ woman is able of."

Chisame growled out a corner of her mouth. "In this I agree with Kakizaki, why can't you ever talk about the kid without turning your words into dirty innuendo?"

Negi, on the other hand, was just too relieved to care or think too hard about it. "Thank you very much, Master!" he quickly bowed to the blonde. "I'll make sure to honor that upcoming battle as you deserve, too!"

"Battle? Clueless wimp, who was saying anything about—Ohh, forget it!" Eva huffed. "Just go rest already, will you? You'll need it for taking on Lingshen… and then me… one after another. And yes, Hasegawa, *now* I am talking about a fight."

"Good to hear," Chisame dryly said.

"Not that I care about any objections you might have otherwise," Evangeline tried to make clear. She turned around with a casual swag of her hips and began walking away. "And if either of you or your friends wishes for a nocturnal consultation, remember I'm always open…" she cackled throatily.

As the petite witch in the tight, white one piece swimsuit walked with her back to them, Negi stared silently after her, and for some reason his eyes became focused on her small, tight derriere. Chisame would have berated him over that fact right then and there if not because she only realized she was staring at it as well when, moments later, Matoi's loud jealous _**JIIIIIIIIIIII**_ sounded right behind her.

Darn bad companies. They were getting to her as well?!

* * *

"I can't sleep," Negi said in the dead quiet of that night, his eyes fixed on the ceiling.

Chamo, who had been lying on the pillow next to Negi's head, snapped back to awareness, smacking his furry lips together. "Ah? Uh? Ah, what? Oh, yeah, neither can I," he said with a small yawn. "Still thinking about having to fight Chao, huh? Don't trouble yourself; she's been asking for it, and you're strong enough to take on her…" he yawned, curling up into a small ball.

Negi sat up on the mattress. "No. I don't want to do it regardless. She's my student, and I'm sure her reasons are good! But I still have to do it, don't I?" He stood up in his pajamas. "I gotta go talk this with a wiser older person…"

"I'm older and wiser!" an offended Chamo perked up while Negi dragged his feet for his bedroom's door, not really listening to the familiar. Chamo huffed indignantly, then hopped off the bed after him. "What happened to the days when you'd settle your sleep problems by just sneaking into a girl's bed? I miss those days a lot!"

"Those weren't days, they were nights…" Negi moaned while Chamo crawled up to his right shoulder, and he walked out into the hall. "Master said she'd be available for consultations tonight. So I'm sure I won't be a bother for once…"

"If you say so," Chamo grumbled while Negi wandered across the maze of halls of the building. The animal looked in all directions. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"No," Negi admitted. "But I'm bound to find her eventually. Or she'll find me. I can't sleep anyway."

Chamo sighed. "You will work yourself into an early grave. All training and no rest mine any body down, you know? If you just listened to me at least once…!"

Then, after doubling a corner, they ran into one of Evangeline's doll maids, who stood guard with her hands crossed before her lap. "Negi Springfield-sama," the black haired doll bowed to him, her voice as flat and hollow as ever. "How may I be of help for you?"

"Um, oh, good evening!" Negi stiffened in place. "Sorry to disturb you so late in the night…!"

"I do not sleep. Your apologies, while duly noted and thanked, are not necessary, Negi-sama," the doll noted. "I repeat, how may I satisfy any needs you might present at the time?"

Negi gulped and decided being honest. "I'd like talking to Master Evangeline, please. She said she'd be open tonight to answer any questions I had to ask her…"

She nodded. "I had been notified of that. Very well. This way, please," she softly said, turning around and taking a side hall. While Chamo gasped nervously, Negi followed her without doubting for a moment.

"What… What is this place?" the young man stopped as she brought them into a huge and nearly perfect copy of the Mahora Female Baths, down to the same architectonic style and coloring. These baths, however, were mostly blanketed by a soft but thick layer of warm vapor, as if the temperature of the waters was considerably higher than that usually had in Mahora Junior High baths. "Is, is Master here? Because then, I should wait outside while she-!"

"Hmmm?" a familiar voice said from the steam, right from where a small thin shape could be vaguely glimpsed taking two hands to its head, and Chamo's tail went as rigid as his- ears. "Boya? Is that you?"

"Eh… Y-Yes, it's me, Master!" Negi said with a shaking voice. "I'm sorry, I had no idea you were here, please don't take it against me!" he begged, blocking his eyes with an arm and trying to walk backwards. He was so nervous he only managed to stumble and fall on his butt on the floor. "Ouch!"

"Iiiiihhhhh!" Chamo said, and instinctively, Negi looked up, to see a very naked and wet Evangeline standing over him, shamelessly, hands on her hips, bare body in full display to them. The boy went darkly red and began gasping in short, quick and continued intervals. He trembled in place.

"I didn't think you'd really look for my guidance, Boya," Evangeline purred. "I was sure your hubris would be as great as that of your father. But, all the better! It's been a long while since the last time I bathed with another. Come join me, and we will discuss in the old kinship style that never should have gone out of vogue."

"What, what what are you saying, Master?!" Negi squealed. "D-Don't joke with me like that, I'm, uh, your student, and you're my student, so that'd be doubly improper, and anyway you don't want me to—"

Eva groaned her annoyance and snapped her fingers. "Are you really going to back away after walking into the lair of vice? Girls, strip him down and get in with me."

"Yes, Master," the doll said, while another, nearly identical maid stepped out from behind a pillar. As Evangeline calmly walked back into the water giving Negi a close full look of her naked buttocks, the two dolls grabbed the boy and began plucking his clothes off. Chamo sweatdropped.

"AAAAIIIIEEEEEEE!" Negi cried. "No, I don't want to! I hate baths! And I hate indecency! And I-!"

One moment later, he, too, was completely naked and one of the maids single-handedly tossed him into the bath as if he were as light as a ball of paper. He fell in with a large splash close to the amused Evangeline, and resurfaced coughing and gasping for air.

"Now, what's the consultation about, in the middle of the night of all times?" Evangeline purred as she rose into her voluptuous adult form before them, large round breasts jutting out with a slight bounce while coming into being from a formerly flat chest. Negi spat a long stream of bath water and Chamo plummeted on his back, sinking like a rock. "Do you want to finally taste the pleasures of the flesh before Lingshen or I dispose of you? Fu fu fu! I guess you have no choice but growing fast when you—"

"Master!" Negi cried, waving his arms and splashing in all directions. "Don't make fun of my predicament!"

"Until you can free me from your father's spell, fun is all you can supply me with," Eva said, reaching over to caress one of his cheeks with her long sharp nails. "And I'm well entitled to it, as I give you and your followers training, meals and a place to stay even when you are hounded…"

"Wh-What about the blood, isn't that… huhhhh…" Negi went crosseyed while the sultry woman began kissing the underside of his neck, placing small pecks all over it, teasing the arteries and vein under the skin.

"Your blood? How kind of you to offer it, but I think I want something else today…" Eva said, one of her hands traveling down Negi's chest, then further down his stomach. She enjoyed the feel of the hardening muscle, the result of his labors, and wondered if it also would be hard down past the waist. It actually was, which made Negi shudder and tense while wondering what was happening to his body. Was it some sort of magic affecting him? Was Master casting some unchanted spell on him while touching him? The hardness grew even worse when her hand stopped right above the line of his waist, and then she stopped.

Negi breathed somewhat easier. "Master," he wheezed. "I think—"

Evangeline's mind had been warring with itself furiously over the last few moments, pondering if to cross the moral event horizon currently tempting her or not and take a good long yang of the thing right under her fingertips. Eventually, she quickly settled for a compromise and, instead of doing it or retreating, she went for something that would not make her lose evil face *or* be too low even for her. After all, several girls who prided themselves on being 'better' than her already had done it. Even if never naked. But, again, she was evil!

Eva leaned ahead and planted her lips on Negi's, making his eyes bug out as the wet mouth on his firmly, roughly clamped itself as if trying to drain the life itself out of him. He felt his eyes then rolling back into their sockets, and the hardening got even worse. Evangeline pressed herself against him during their osculation, and she made a short sound of evil glee as she felt the small hardness poking against her stomach.

Then, much to her confusion, never mind Negi's, the water under and around them began glowing.

Chamo broke back to the surface, gulping for air and victoriously holding a wet chalkstick up. "Pa, Pa, Pactio!" he said.

"SAY WHAT?!" Evangeline cried, enraged, pulling back from the kiss and releasing the choking, gasping Negi. Then the water exploded in all directions, and a pillar of light erupted from the depths, a shiny card floating in the middle of it. Eva stared in paling disbelief at the float, that hovered gracefully above them for the next several moments, and even before it fell, she took a squeezing hold of Chamo, smashing him between her fingers. "YOU NO-GOOD CREEP!"

"SO-WORTH-IT-ANIMAL-ABUSE!" Chamo chuckled with his last breaths before Eva just tossed him aside in disgust. He hit the bath's edge, gurgled, then fell back into the water. Several bubbles rose to the surface where he had fallen, after that.

Negi gagged and stuttered, regaining his bearings and taking a hand to his mouth. He blushed deeply and he felt his knees shaking under the water. "Master, why, why, I never imagined, you'd feel this way about me, s-sorry, but…!"

"Shut up!" she snapped at him, regaining her child form with a loud 'POP!' sound. "Don't get the wrong idea, Boya! It's not like I could love anyone as pathetic as you or anything! This was your stupid ermine's fault…" she mumbled, then picked the card up from the water where it already had fallen into. "But since it already happened, now let's see what do you get as my Min—"

Then she fell silent, her jaw loosening, her eyes growing wide.

"Master?" Negi asked. "W-What happened?" He was completely sure he would be blamed about this, whatever it was.

Wordlessly, the vampire witch shoved the card in front of his face, literally smashing his nose in. It hurt. Bad.

When Negi finished rubbing the blood off his nose, he blinked and gave the card a good look. It had a nice picture of Evangeline, in her child form, smirking and wearing the black negligee with the thong panties and the high collar ragged cape. Her feet bare, and a knife-wielding Chachazero at her side, held by a set of strings hanging from the fingers of one of Eva's hands.

Under the image, it read:

 _Athanasia Ecaterina Macdovell Evangelina_

 _Magistra Puparum_

"Wow," Negi breathed out. "This is a really cool looking card, Master. A bit risky looking, though, but—"

" **I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE MAGISTER!"** Evangeline roared as she punched Negi across the room.

* * *

"Why are we having dinner long after sleeptime?" Negi asked as he sat down at the table the two doll maids had just served.

"Because I want to, and because I _sometimes_ cool down if I eat something after being insulted or crossed," the again-adult looking, slinky black night dress with high heel shoes-wearing Evangeline mumbled while sitting opposite him. "Unless you'd want to placate my appetite with your blood instead?"

"There's never a bad time for a nice dinner under the moonlight," Negi stiffly chuckled, fixing his tie back, while the false moon and stars threw some romantic, moody lighting over the gala pavilion the two of them and Chamo were at now. The dolls had vanished away right after setting the table, and for a moment Negi had to wonder if Eva had programmed ninjutsu training into them. But now it wasn't the time to think about that, right? "Are you still angry?" he carefully asked.

Eva scoffed. "Sort of. Why wouldn't I? This has been a terrible slight to my power, but I suppose I should blame the spirits of magic, not you. Maybe the alliance system works differently into subdimensional space. I don't know, I never tried to make a Pactio here."

Negi gulped. "I seem to remember Itoshiki-sensei and Kaga-san had their Pactio kiss in this resort, and it worked fine for them…"

"They're only humans! I'm special!" Evangeline growled. "Well? What was worrying you, then?"

Negi blinked. "Shouldn't we keep on thinking about our—"

"No, I don't want to think about that!" Eva said. "Let's go back to what brought you to me in the first place! Let me guess; after fighting that fake Nagi, you're in doubt about facing an alleged relative again, aren't you? You men are so predictable."

"I hadn't thought about it that way," Negi said, "but there's a lot of truth to your words. Yes, facing Chao-san fills me with a lot of doubt. For starters, I don't even know if I'm doing the right thing by fighting her."

"That's her own fault. She should have told you before challenging you," Eva told him as she poured herself a glass of wine.

"She told me she'd only tell me if I joined her cause," Negi sheepishly observed.

Eva waved a hand. "That's just as stupid. If someone's that manipulative, then they just can't be any good. I mean, just look at me! Of course, Linghsen cannot hope to be as perversely awesome as I, so she's just a second rate wannabe at villainy. Smash her, she's earned that."

"Chachamaru would be sad," Negi offered.

"Chachamaru is always sad, unless she's looking after some cats. I'll just buy her more cats," Evangeline shrugged while primly cutting her steak.

"What if she has good motives to keep me in the dark?"

"Then she'd better tell you about them after you rub her face in the dirt."

"Aren't you concerned about the reasons and consequences of something as dire as revealing magic to the world?"

"Mundus Magicus has known about it for centuries, and they get by just fine, don't they?" Eva shrugged indolently. "Back when I was young, most people in this world knew, as well. What you call the Age of Illumination did indeed throw a lot of light upon this planet, but also threw blankets over its most shadowy corners and chose to ignore them. Act as if they never existed. Either way, it doesn't matter to me."

"I'm thinking," Chamo said, from his place next to Negi's chair, "if the word gets out you are an immortal vampire locked up at this academy, you might become a touristic attraction for many, Evangeline-sama…"

"And that's why you shouldn't ever think!" the blonde hissed. "Either way, Boya, the answer to all your concerns demands for you to defeat Lingshen and demand straight answers from her. I don't know why you are so torn about it."

"I think you are underselling the likely consequences of Chao-san's victory," Negi gulped. "It would change the world as a whole, and perhaps have long term ramifications on Mundus Magicus as well…"

"No doubt," she conceded, "but change has to eventually come one way or another. Right now, isolationist tendencies are popping up all across that world, demanding for them to cut all ties with Earth. But as the immigration program Cocone-san is part of proves, they just can't allow themselves that, no matter what the extremists delude themselves into believing. Of course, Linghsen's triumph would make that more complicated; tensions between commoners and mages would reach all new levels. How would you feel if you learned there's been a secret society lurking inside of the magical community over centuries, and you knew next to nothing about their true goals and nature? That's what we are to normal humans, Boya. And there are lots of powerful people in both sides who would profit from fanning the fires of paranoia."

Negi swallowed his current, tender mouthful as if it was made of wood. "And, and you're okay with _**that?!**_ "

"Do you have any idea how many worldwide disasters and crises one sees when one gets as old as I?" Eva passively said. "Changes won't happen without some measure of public distress or another. That's the nature of the world… either of them."

"But, Chao-san and I could be in a position where we can change that for everyone's best! If only I knew what I have to do!" Negi almost stood up.

"What makes you so sure Lingshen herself knows what she's doing?" Evangeline asked while sipping more wine. "It's true she is intelligent, but intelligence in the fields of science and finances doesn't have to always equal common sense or long term insight. Hakase and Yukihiro are living proof of that."

Negi now slumped down on his seat instead. "This is too much for me," he lamented. "I shouldn't have been trusted with a decision as weighty as this one."

"Maybe," Chamo piped in, "that's why Chao-chan didn't want to tell you so much. Maybe you'd be crushed even harder now."

"Oh-ho ho!" Eva chuckled. "Cutting the girl some slack at last?"

Negi mused aloud, "She asked me what I would do if I had the chance to change the past, to save my village, my father. If I could, I'd do it in a heartbeat! What if she's moved by the same kind of reasons? How could I ruin her chance for happiness then?"

"Hu… I see," Eva smirked while wiping her mouth with a handkerchief, delicately. "Well, I will admit I have no easy answers for that, Boya. Very rarely you find easy answers for complicated questions. Have you finished by now?"

Negi looked at his half-empty plate, then set it aside. "Yes," he said.

"Good," Evangeline said while standing up. "Then follow me outside. I'm going to teach you something."

* * *

On the beach, Negi took his shirt and shoes off as Evangeline shook her shoes off and then pulled the dress off her body, leaving herself in her lacy black underwear. Chamo, sitting on the sand at a prudent distance, drew a deep impressed breath in. Negi gulped awkwardly, but didn't set his eyes apart from the beauty. She had been stressing the importance of not letting the gentleman in him overrule the warrior a lot, lately.

"Prepare yourself," Evangeline told him.

"What does fighting have to do with the ethical implications of what we were discussing?" Negi asked.

"Just prepare yourself," she ordered.

And she jumped at him, kicking him across the face.

Negi rolled around with the hit, backflipping on his hands and feet along the coastline, while she laughed at him. "What's wrong, Boya?! Did you really rank second in the Tournament, or was that 'CGI'?" she taunted, coming closer at blitzing speed. She threw a punch at him, and while he blocked, she left him with severe bruises on his blocking wrists, pushing him back.

"Master, this is pointless!" he tried a leg sweep at her feet, only for her to easily jump over it, chanting her power activation under her breath. "It doesn't answer my question at all!"

"Mwa ha ha ha!" she laughed while tossing several ice arrows at him. "What did I tell you about easy answers? You're such a bookworm you believe every question can be answered by a textbook! It doesn't work that way, lad!"

"I'm not treating you like a textbook!" he yelled as he shot several lightning arrows, neutralizing Evangeline's. "All I ask for is some basic moral guidance! Which all masters should be able to provide!"

"True!" Eva laughed, as they moved back and forth across the beach, spellcasting at each other and blowing sand and water in all directions. "Even if you only should expect evil morals from an evil master! Is that what you're afraid of, Boya? That, through me, you've become the evil one in your conflict with Chao?!"

"What?" he blinked, right before being grabbed by the throat and thrown through a palm tree.

Evangeline floated over his stunned form. "You are still obsessed with your 'purity' and 'goodness', thinking them to be your adored father's ideals! Yet you can't deny being attracted to my darkness! As long as that schism exists in your heart, you won't be able to fight correctly as good or evil!"

He grunted, thrust himself up by pushing his hands down on the ground, and kicked Eva's jaw with both feet. She cackled as she flew back. "Look at yourself! You don't even know what true evil is yet! You haven't tasted the miseries of the world, and you are afraid of them! Afraid of hurting others! But you know what, Boya?" she smiled cruelly at him as she stopped in midair, looking down at him. "Often, 'good' people will hurt others as much if not more as the 'evil' ones do."

"That can't be right!" he rushed at her, readying a fist.

"It's true!" she yelled, grabbing him by a wrist and slamming him down. "Including your father! Who did hurt me! And your mother! And so many others! And YOU! Even if his intentions were 'good', as you put it!"

"You're just letting your hatred talk for you!" he protested, punching her in the face.

"And you're letting your fear talk in your stead!" she said, gesturing around and wrapping his body with invisible strings, immobilizing him just like she had done to Ranma during their tournament battle. "Fear of hurting your mismatched party! In the end, you just want to do everything yourself, so they don't get hurt! But look at what you can achieve on your own!" she growled, stomping down on his chest.

He squirmed in pain. "It's my duty as a teacher, a mage, a warrior, a gentleman! Isn't that obvious?!"

"Hu… No, you're wrong. In the end, you're just making excuses for yourself." She took a hand to his throat and squeezed, while Chamo gasped and fainted. "You can't be their teacher forever, just like I can't be yours. Mages aren't supposed to babysit mankind, just to walk along them. Warriors have to learn how to accept collateral damage. And gentlemen… Boya, I hate to break it to you, but gentlemen don't exist. Your father was no gentleman, Takamichi and Eishun aren't gentlemen, and you will never be one."

She released his neck while Negi panted violently. More softly, she added, "No matter how much Hasegawa and the others insist on it, you just won't accept it, and how can you call yourself a teacher when you won't learn your own lessons? You need to start thinking of them… of _us_ , now you've done this…" she placed the new card before his face, "as your comrades. They have trusted you to lead them, and I have trusted you enough as to teach you, as to place my hopes of release on you. Don't you think it's time you start answering to that trust with your own?"

"Master," Negi coughed.

"Don't get me wrong," she told him. "I won't accept you as my Magister Magi… as laughable as that idea is… until you have proved yourself. As a man who is aware of his own limits, not a child playing to be a great lone hero, like your father was. And start accepting one of those limits is, you can't keep everyone safe forever. No one can remain safe forever, Boya. Not even those who live in blissful ignorance, much less those who have stepped into the world of magic. Learning that is part and parcel of becoming a man."

He felt his eyes watering as he looked up at her. "But… that is my dream, Master…"

"Ah. That's unfortunate," she said. "Or not. Dreams are supposed to be unobtainable, after all. Otherwise, you might reach them, and what would happen then? No," she said, waving a hand and releasing him, "The dreams of mankind are supposed to be ideals to be chased eternally, like all things based on perfection are."

"Become someone who can advance even while covered on mud, Boya," Evangeline told him. "That's what I want from an apprentice of mine. And from a man I can call my own."

"Bweh?" the boy said.

She caressed his cheeks with both hands. "I don't know what our Pactio is supposed to do. You certainly can't supply me with any power I don't have already. But maybe, if you ever grow powerful enough as to reach or surpass me… yes, I know it is ridiculous and impossible, but again, an ideal… maybe then, you could actually qualify as my Magister. In the meanwhile, I will be keeping this," and she stuck her card down her cleavage. "As a memento of your devotion to me. My dark disciple."

She turned around and began walking away, slow and sensually. He only could stare, entranced, after her.

"Master," he finally said, weakly, "thank you very much."

She chuckled without looking back. "You're always welcome."

And he could swear he had heard, from the first time ever, actual warmth and fondness directed from her to him.

Negi Springfield fell back on the sand and wondered why his heart kept on beating that fast.

The stress and thrill of the fight, no doubt. Yes. That had to be it.

* * *

 **Pactio Partner Number Fifteen: Evangeline A.K. Mc Dowell**.


	2. Chapter 2

Akamatsu Ken and Kodansha created Mahou Sensei Negima.

I make no money from writing this fanfic.

* * *

 **Twenty Five Other Times Negi Made a Pactio**.

* * *

 **The Martian China Syndrome**.

* * *

On the plus side, it had been the most successful Mahorafest ever. It even had brought illustrious visitors from overseas.

As Bruce Wayne rested on his back on a rooftop, barely able to move and looking up at the nocturnal sky, his costume reduced to black tatters and half a mask, his usually bright and highly strategic mind only could think of how zeppelins were much cooler in Gotham. Dark gray, sleek police zeppelins patrolling the skies, a far cry from the lime-green extravagant monstrosity floating high above him and the rest of the school, with a bold 'CHAO BAO ZI' written in huge red characters on its sides.

"It's funny, huh?" Evangeline Mc Dowell mused, sitting at his battered, fallen form's side on the rooftop. "You come all the way from America, once again, to meddle into the affairs of a community you detest..."

"... I don't detest... the Japanese... you... projecting..." the Dark Knight grunted.

"I'm talking about the magical community," Eva huffed, waving a hand in a circle. "And all of it for what? For once, you've been out-gambited, and now the fate of your precious world rests in the hands of a simple boy... who Yours Truly happened to train into what he is now, mind..."

"Good. So whatever happens next is your fault," he grunted, vainly trying to get up once more.

"I guess it is," Evangeline said, her green eyes fixed on the zeppelin.

* * *

"The last two years have been fun," Chao said, "but it's all a faint dream to me now. And I'm waking up."

The boy floating before her, standing on his wooden staff, said nothing.

This seemed to piss her off, for once. Her unflappable smirk was replaced by a dark frown. "So, the discussion is over. Fine with me, then." She raised her hands and chanted, " _Last Tale My Magic Scir Magister!_ Heed our contract and serve me, tyrant of flame!"

 _"Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister!"_ Negi shouted. "Come, O wind spirits of lightning!" Gesturing violently with both hands, electricity crackled around his fingers.

Chao clenched her teeth. And a massive ball of fire came to be between her hands. "Come, flame of purification, yer fiery broadsword!" Jumping up into the sky, she tossed the flames down at him. "Fire and brimstone, surge forth!"

"Let the southern storm blow with lightning!" Negi screamed, just as dramatically, and the ray flew up from him, directly towards her.

"Sodom ablaze, to the dust of death with the sinners ye cast!" Chao's voice briefly rose above his own.

 _"Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!"_ and a terrifying barrage of lightning bolts erupted from Negi's hands, joining the first ray.

 _"_ _Ο_ _ὐ_ _ρανία_ _Φλόγωσις_ _!"_ and a gigantic wall of fire was shot from Chao's palms, coming together with her prior attack.

And their respective spells collided in mid-air, illuminating the night as much as the Sun would have for a moment, causing a lot of panic and awe across the campus that waited expectantly under them. There was a deafening boom, and both fighters were sent reeling back across the air, yet they promptly regained their pose almost instantly, before they could plummet to their dooms. Negi had to latch onto his father's staff right at the last instant, but as soon as his hand had a firm grasp on it, he threw himself back on it, quickly reaching the necessary balance once again. He breathed heavily, however, and the long drawn battle's toll was finally evident on his hunchbacked, bruised figure.

Chao, suspended in the middle of the clouds like a limping doll, her clothes badly shredded, her long braids undone and letting ebony hair cascade over her bleeding face and shoulders, smiled sweet, vacantly at him. "You win. Negi-bouzou," she fondly said before closing her eyes and allowing herself to fall.

She had failed. No matter how much, how hard she had tried, she had failed. Again. But at least, this would be the last time. Now she would rest from her ultimately pointless, insane self imposed Sisyphean task. And the cold air hitting her face as she spiraled down felt actually nice, like harsh caresses.

Then she was reminded Springfields weren't supposed to be quitters. And all it took was that small, yet steely hand tightly closing around hers, stopping her freefall. Chao cringed as the whiplash of the abrupt stop sent a massive wave of pain through her neck, but both she and Negi knew that wouldn't be nearly enough to kill her. Crashing down on the grass from that height might have done the trick, though. Not that she would get to learn that that night.

She opened her large, round, now utterly sad eyes again to stare at the battered boy floating right above her, and holding for her as much if not more as he held to life itself. "So," he dryly rasped, interrupted by a short fit of cough, "I get to choose my prize, then. And that will never be your death, Chao-chan."

She cracked a smile that was literally painful for her. "... chan?"

He smiled back, pretty much the same way.

* * *

Once again, the Mahora night was decorated by beautiful lights, but now the atmosphere was peaceful and sedate, contemplative even, as Ala Alba and their allies gathered near the World Tree, to see Chao Lingshen slowly ascend towards the colorful lights, in a perfect vertical line, with a small, sad, lingering smile.

"So long, Negi-sensei, everyone," she softly said.

"Chao-chan!" Negi said, now suddenly running towards her, startling Satomi and Skuld, who had been standing at each side of him.

"Let's meet again!" she added, waving a hand up.

"Chao-chan!" he cried, trying to reach up into the light, for her. "I've changed my mind! I do have something to tell you!"

The raw emotion in his voice further shocked Ayaka, Haruka, Misa, Chisame, Makie, Nodoka, Yue, Illya, Alice and Natsumi, long enough for a sighing Asuna, shaking her head to herself, to be able to take a hold of the alleged Lingshen Family Tree they had been fighting for, and for her to throw it into the lingering fire of some nearby battle rubble.

"Chao-chan, I need to confess this!" Negi screamed at the top of his lungs. "I lov—!"

Then he was as surprised as everyone else when someone fell from the middle of the lights, from far above Chao, landing on her head with a sharp heel and keeping her other long leg doubled, presumably to spare Chao the pain of having yet another heel trying to puncture her skull. How kind of her. "—CHAO-CHAN!" Negi yelled.

Chao, who was now on her stomach on the grass, rubbed the small fresh wound on her head with a hand. "Owie owie owie, what was the big idea, Rit—" Then, as she lifted her face to get a good look of the seething woman standing over her, holding a very long staff, she actually grinned widely. "Ah! Setsuna-chan! You're alive!"

"Why wouldn't I be alive?" a confused Setsuna asked, standing between Konoka and Sakurako.

"Uh? Ah, no, I mean her, that is—" Chao began to say, right before being lifted and rattled by the angry woman with long, dark green hair in a Sailor Senshi uniform.

"Stop giving my identity away, will you?!" the woman yelled at her. "Haven't you had enough with all the times you've changed the timestream? Do you have any idea how many times I've died because of that?! What do you have against me?! Why do you want to ruin my job and my life so much?!"

"Died?" asked Itoshiki-sensei, blinking in interest.

Chao chuckled, a major drop of sweat on her head. "Come on, you know I was sorry, I had been sorry, I am sorry, I have been sorry, I will be sorry, and all the other verbal times they haven't invented yet... But I obviously changed the timeline again so you're alive and rocking at your job, so it all ended up more or less okay, right? Hey, did Makoto-chan, too—?"

"No more, Chao Lingshen, no more!" Meioh Setsuna, Sailor Pluto, growled on her face, her ever-present cold and calculating attitude replaced by sheer anger born from stress and despair. "Starting now, you're forbidden from traveling through the timestream again! You'll have to sleep on the bed you've made! Stop trying to fix what wasn't broken in the first place! And then making it broken! We don't want any more of your timequakes around!"

"... you're aware Future Me will find a way around that, right?" Chao asked. "Also, you haven't answered me about Mako—"

"THAT'S CLASSIFIED INFORMATION! AND YOU CAN FIND OUT BY CHECKING THE LOCAL DIRECTORIES ANYWAY!"

"..." said Ala Alba.

While Skuld sighed and facepalmed, and a giggling Ku Fei ran past Negi to tightly hug Chao after Sailor Pluto dropped her, Batman appeared right behind the perplexed Chisame and Tsunetsuki Matoi. "Hnh," he said. "I suppose I can tell Booster everything worked out, then..."

"AH!" Matoi gasped. "You were there?!"

"Yes, always."

"... okay, that's not cute at all when it's a grown man doing it..."

And that was how the School Festival ended.

* * *

"— and that's why she must stay here until we can figure out what else to do," Negi finished explaining, as they stood in one of the many elevated platforms of Evangeline's resort, with Chamo, Chisame, Satomi, Chao and Matoi standing shortly behind him. A nearby waterfall roared, but not loud enough as to make Negi's words difficult to listen to.

"I see," standing with his back to them, quietly watching over the majestic simulated landscape, Imma Albireo smiled faintly. "Yes, the Magic Associations don't forgive easily, and I think I know a few things on the subject. I'm surprised Kitty-chan allowed her to stay, however."

"It was just a favor to Chachamaru," Chao shrugged.

'Colonel Sanders' chuckled as he turned back to face them. "I imagine, then, you are ready for your answers now, aren't you, Negi-kun?"

He blinked. "Ah? But... but the terms were, if I won...!"

"The terms were," the robed man interrupted, "if you won, I'd tell you about your father. But I never mentioned anything about not telling you if you didn't win."

Negi's face lit up. "Colonel!"

The delicately handsome man pulled a Pactio card with his figure and name out of one of his wide white sleeves. "Yes, Negi, your father is still alive. Or else the proof of our contract wouldn't stand, as it clearly does."

"... that was a Pactio of blood, wasn't it?" Chamo asked.

"No," Albireo smoothly contested, making Chamo collapse into gags and chokes of disgust, a paw on his stomach. Negi was too startled to really care or even register that point, though. Matoi primly wiped the blood of her nose with a tissue. "As for further information, it would probably be a good idea to return to Wales. And checking around its gate to the Magical World."

"The Magical World...!" Negi repeated.

"Phooey," the ermine grunted. "So, we had the answer right there, so close to us, the whole time?!"

"Are you implying," Satomi asked, "the whole trip here and Negi's stint as a teacher was a waste of your time?"

He pouted. "I never said that! I'm sure the Bro wouldn't have gathered such a fine host of hotties around him had he stayed at Wales! Although... there was that blond girl in Merdiana who was really cute... and of course there's Anya-sis... and..."

Chisame absently crushed him under a heel.

"ANIMAL ABUSE!"

Chao cringed at took a hand to the bandage on her head. "Could you please not stomp on others' heads while I'm around? I can't believe even Konoka-chan couldn't heal this... Meioh-san is a truly fearsome person..."

Negi's head snapped back up from the pensive position it had taken after his initial burst of wonder and excitement. He quietly nodded to himself and then turned around towards Lingshen. "Chao-chan," he told her. "Won't you come to the Magical World with me? I mean, my father is your family as well, and you are not wanted there. You can change the future yet, by living in this era with us. I won't let anyone object to that, either!"

"You won't?" Chisame quietly said, her glasses suddenly foggy.

Chao herself looked oddly confused about the offer, and even Chamo had broken into a fit of disbelieving cough. "Wait, are you serious, Negi-bouzou?" the supergenius asked. "I mean, I have caused you and everybody else so many problems, I considered myself lucky if you'd just dump me here, but… this…!"

The boy mage shook his head. "I won't let you off the hook so easily, Chao-chan. If it's true you have caused me so many problems, then you'd better make up for it by directly helping me, don't you think?" He smiled.

"Wait, exactly when did she become 'Chao-chan' anyway?!" asked Chisame.

"I'm just startled he's offering to drag a girl into potential danger for once," Matoi said.

"And while _smiling_!" Satomi noted.

Chao blinked a few times, then chuckled and smiled back. "I guess such a future doesn't sound bad at all, ne? Although I'm not sure Chiu-chan would like it…"

"W-Why should I care at all?!" Chisame protested.

"Maybe because, in the world of magic, aiming to become partners in sorcery and spellcraft together is akin to be married for life, yo?" Chao tilted her head towards her. Then she reached over and gently caressed one of Negi's cheeks with a hand. "Are you sure you want to propose that to someone who is your own flesh and blood, Negi-bouzou…?" she purred.

Much to everyone but Al's utter shock, Chamo included, Negi did the fully unexpected and, instead of blushing and stammering, simply nodded and said, "Yes."

"…what?" Chao asked.

Negi shrugged. "We are several generations apart, aren't we? It'll be no worse than kissing a distant cousin, and as for the other thing, well, it's only a provisional contract, isn't it? Um, I mean, not that it wouldn't mean a lot for me regardless, just like every other Pactio I've made, and hopefully it would mean just as much for you, but.. but…!"

"You hit him too hard in the head during that stupid fight!" Chisame yelled at Chao.

"My my my, what an interesting twist of events…" Albireo casually commented. He looked actually far too pleasantly amused, all things considered.

Again, Chao chuckled, although somewhat more nervously. Almost flustered, even. "Oh dear, my ancestor's natural Casanova skills seem to be working their magic even on me! How scandalous, ne? Okay, fine, I'll do it. A woman of action must be prepared to take any turn life throws at her, and a woman of science must be willing to take any course of experimental research no matter how unethical it may seem. That's your credo, isn't it, Satomi-chan?"

"It, it, it used to be, but…" Hakase stuttered aimlessly.

Chao put a finger on her own lips. "But again, won't Chiu-chan get mad all the same?"

"I, I told you imbeciles I won't give a shit!" the redfaced Chisame cried.

"Please, Chisame, mind your language in Master's home and in the Colonel's presence," Negi reasonably requested. Then he looked down. "Chamo-kun? Do your thing, please!"

The familiar grimaced. "Um, actually, Bro," he said, "you know very well I'm no prude! And that I'll rarely balk at anything you tell me to do! And I'm glad to see you, for once, taking the initiative with a girl! I was starting to fear I'd never see the day! But… maybe I'll kick myself later for saying this… but, don'tcha think maybe, _this once_ , it would be better to rethink a Pactio? I mean, distant or not, she's still your relative! Your descendant, even! And still sort of evil!"

Chisame laughed bitterly. "Ohhh, this is rich! The twerp wants to do it, but now the weasel doesn't want to! Ahha ha ha ha! Don't you find it just sooo funny too, Matoi, Hakase?"

"'Funny' is not the term I would employ in this situation," Satomi frowned.

"Just like Batman-sama, you are at your scariest when you try to laugh, Chisame-sama," Tsunetsuki said. "Unlike him, that doesn't make you any less hot, though."

" _Shut up,"_ Chisame said, horrifically chilly now.

Then she heard Satomi gagging in her own saliva, and she and Matoi followed her gaze just to start gagging as well. A pleasantly smiling Negi, with a vein bulging on his forehead, had Chamo's head under a foot, the ermine's legs twitching in all directions. "Chamo, my dear old friend," Negi sweetly said, "surely I have just made a grievous mistake and heard you incorrectly when you said Chao-chan was evil and you wouldn't allow her a fair Pactio when you have pushed for everyone else to get one… haven't I?"

Chamo desperately squeaked something muffled that only Negi could understand. "I thought so. And I apologize for the mistake of my foot's placement as well," Negi politely bowed and stepped back, letting Chamo gasp madly for air, rubbing his skull back into shape. "Now, if you were as wonderfully kind as always to—"

"Ahead of you, Bro," Chamo said with a dry, choked voice, pulling the piece of chalk out of his fur. He moved quickly all around the feet of Negi and a giggling Chamo, rushing to draw the magic circle before he could finish understanding the nature of what had just happened to him. Better that way, Chamo thought. He imagined he'd be too crushed once the realization fully sank in.

"Wait, are you really going to do it, then?!" Chisame cried.

"Why would I joke about such an important matter?" Negi asked back, sounding actually confused, as he probably was. Chao was starting to lean down towards him, pouting her mouth up.

"But, but that's just, you can't just seriously… Oh, forget it!" Chisame threw her hands up and turned around. "Do whatever the heck you want, you PERV!"

Negi frowned. "What are you so peeved out abou—Well, I suppose I know, but if you jut would stop and think about it, would see it's really no wors—"

"Less talking and more kissing, Negi-bouzou," Chao said, grabbing him by the collar and then pulling him towards herself and into a solid, deep wet kiss. Despite believing he would be ready for it, especially by now, Negi couldn't help shaking in shock at the unexpected, almost cruel, violence and passion of Chao's kiss. He could barely hear Satomi's long drawn squeak-whimper of broken impression over the faint sounds of bells ringing in his ears all of a sudden. At least he hoped they were just imagined sounds born from the shock and not Asuna walking in on them. Although he'd have to tell her and the others soon anyway…

"Pactiooooo," Chamo half-heartedly moaned as the light jumping from the circle enveloped them all.

Negi was the first one who could see again, and he seized that chance to grab the newly formed Pactio card in the air before it dropped. He looked at it, then waited for Chao to stop rubbing her eyes before smiling and showing it to her.

The card showed Chao in her black and white sleek Chao Bao Zi battle armor, with a Cassiopeia in a hand and a miniature attack satellite at each side of her head. It read as follows:

 _Tiao Linsien_

 _Polymathes Universalis_

Chao slammed her hands together, with gleaming eyes and a disturbingly gigantic smile. "Oi! Isn't this great, Satomi-chan? We have just gotten empiric confirmation it is indeed possible to perform Provisional Alliances BEFORE even being born! The universal flow of magic still recognizes you as a being who exists! Just think of all the pantemporal displacement applications!"

"Huh," Hakase blandly said. "If you think that has any scientific value, then… I am glad for you and your findings, Chao? Although I suppose also slightly jealous you beat me to it…"

"Oh, come on!" Chisame snapped. "Don't tell me you'll start working on your own time machine to go back in time and French your own great-great-great grandfather now!"

"Well… of course not, that would be just too derivative," Satomi said. "I will have to think of another venue of research in the same field."

"Aaarrrghhhhh!" Chisame yelled.

"So… are you happy now, Chao-chan?" Negi tentatively asked.

She smirked kittenishly and nodded. "Of course I am! Thank you, Negi. This is truly a wonderful gift, mostly for the trust you place on me through it, ne?"

He nodded back, more sedately. Once again, he wanted to believe her so much, so desperately, and yet he could swear he still could feel some of the disturbing underlying melancholy and sadness Chao had been displaying since the Festival began, under her regained happy go lucky attitude. But he decided not to mention that, not to keep pushing the envelope any further by now.

After all, judging from the piercing way Chisame was glaring at him now, he already had pushed his luck more than enough for a day… or perhaps a whole decade!

Albireo just chuckled under his breath, clearly enjoying it all a bit too much.

* * *

 **Pactio Partner Number Sixteen: Chao Lingshen**.


	3. Chapter 3

"It's no good!" Anya gasped loudly as everything crumbled down around them, large chunks of rock falling everywhere. "They've destroyed the gate's keystone… and this link between the worlds is broken, with us caught in the middle!"

"Yeah, the bonding magic is going out of control!" Negi observed. "Everyone get together!" he commanded to his forces and the confused hanger-ons. "Join hands tightly, and pray this-!"

Then everything surrounding him exploded into an onslaught of light, smoke, flying marble and rubble, and shattered ice. His lungs were filled by dust, a massive force hit him in the chest and sent him flying back and away from the others, and his whole world went black.

He still could hear Chisame's voice desperately crying, "Negi! Take my hand!" before losing his hearing in addition to his sight. And then everything became quiet.

* * *

Akamatsu Ken and Kodansha created and owned _Mahou Sensei Negima!_

Yamaguchi Noboru and Media Factory created _Zero no Tsukaima_.

* * *

 **Twenty Five Other Times Negi Made a Pactio**.

* * *

 **Louise the Zero**.

* * *

"I think I will call him…" announced the shapely and dark skinned bespectacled young blonde with dog ears and a furry tail, as she lifted the small yellow animal in her hands, "… Jean-Luc!"

A slightly taller and bustier dog girl with longer blond hair, standing at a side of the summoning field behind the Academy, raised an eyebrow. "Jean-Luc?" she echoed dubiously.

"Pika-Pika?" added the yellow mouse-like creature (although more similar in size to a small cat) the dog female with glasses was holding, cocking its head aside, its lightning-shaped tail twitching.

The girl holding him nodded and smiled. "Doesn't he just look like a Jean-Luc? And I believe it's a lovely name!"

The gathered students standing behind the other dog-like student chuckled, giggled and chattered amongst themselves before the plump, short human woman in the dark purple robes and hat silenced them with naught but a calmed gesture. "It is as valid a name as any other," she said. "Miss Farandole, if anything, I think you should be commended on managing to summon such a creature. There are no records of anything like it in any menagerie I ever remember seeing, so you will get points on reaching past the boundaries of this realm. However, that also means you will have to be extremely careful handling it, as we don't know the extent of its powers or its emotional swings…"

Collet Farandole laughed at that. "Oh, Miss Chevreusse! You worry far too much! Just look at how lovable Jean-Luc looks, and how friendly it acts! How could he possibly ever—"

"Pika! Pika!" Jean-Luc, after shaking his short legs desperately in an effort to be put down, clenched his teeth and then released a large electric discharge from his body, knocking Collet on her back on the grass, her eyes spiraling quickly.

Professor Chevreusse sighed. "Very well, I suppose now we all are done with… Oh, my apologies," she corrected herself, looking at a nervous, gulping pink haired little beauty the other girls had just stepped away from, as if to give her free berth for the sake of her shame. "I don't know how I could forget about you, My Lady. Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere, please step forward and summon your Familiar."

The girl she had just addressed nodded firmly, but then just stayed still where she was.

The middle aged teacher waited for a moment before gently adding, "Miss La Valliere, the summoning has to be performed at the middle of the ceremonial grounds."

" _Not like it will help her any,"_ whispered a tall, buxom, brown skinned redhead to a much shorter and smaller blue haired girl with glasses and a stoic bland expression standing at her side, holding a long wooden staff in a hand. Louise stared fire and hissed poison in their general direction before reluctantly walking ahead to stand before the teacher at the middle of the gathering.

"I know this might be difficult for you," Chevreusse said, greatly understating the situation, "but I'm confident you can do it if you just put your heart into it. We know you have certain problems… accessing magic, but you have a lot of spirit, and invoking a Familiar relies, more than anything, on willpower and drive. It should play to your strengths enough for it to work. Do you feel prepared?"

"As much as ever, I imagine," the girl sadly said, well convinced by now she would fail no matter the time, so why to keep stalling her ultimate defeat anymore? She had led a good… well, a moderately pleasant life, and she was sure she always could escape or throw herself off a bridge before being shipped back home a failure to face her mother and older sister's wrath.

"That's excellent!" smiled Chevreusse, who was much better at teaching students with any talent than at recognizing the signs from those who didn't. "Well then, show us your majestic Familiar, My Lady!"

"Oh, this will be good," the short haired, elegant Tomoe Marguerite chuckled to herself under her breath, maliciously. The pony unicorn with light purple fur and a darker mane and tail standing on all fours at her side, wearing one of the Academy's official black capes, gave her an angry stink eye Tomoe pretended to ignore altogether. Stupid ponies.

Louise gathered the deepest breath of her young life, raised the magical wand in her right hand, and chanted with a voice that tried its best to sound brave and not shaky, "Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers! Heed my summoning! And bring forth my Familiar!"

 _ **Nothing… Nothing Happened**_.

Somewhere else in the Mundus Magicus, a certain green haired swordsman and pirate sneezed loudly, then rubbed the snot off his nose with the back of a solid hand.

"I knew it," Nina Wang shook her head in somber and disappointed dismay. "There was no way it could work…"

"Like, that is weird," the short duck girl with blond hair at her left blinked. "I was like sure my readings on today's events so totally said she'd do well for once…?"

"Sacred! Beautiful! Powerful Familiar!" Louise yelled as she waved the wand high. "Come to me already! For we are fated for great things together!"

"Now this is just sad…" Irina Woods, a brainy looking petite redhead, placed a hand on her own face, pushing her glasses up. She'd always found La Valliere standoffish, rude and unlikable, but seeing her at her most pathetic was still gut wrenching. And gut turning.

"Listen to the pledge radiating from my heart!" Louise called loudly. "SO WE CAN SHOW EVERYONE!"

"Oi," a tiny demoness from Venus began waving her small hands towards Louise, "don't you think that's enough now? Even a high performance student like you should realize by this point—"

Raspberyl's usual confused declarations on what made a good student and a delinquent or underachiever were interrupted this once when the skies suddenly grew much darker, almost as much as those back in her homeworld, making her step back as she took notice. So did the teacher and the rest of the students and their newly summoned Familiars, who instantly looked up in several different levels of alarm. They were so greatly worried they failed to notice the blue pentagon starting to glow under Louise's feet, surrounding itself with a circle and runes until it became a fully fledged Pactio circle. Even Louise had failed to see it, as her head had snapped back and she gasped, staring in terror at the black clouds that had just appeared all over Mundus Magicus, shooting lightning at each other.

" _Pika…"_ a fascinated Jean-Luc stared at the beautiful electric lights.

"Oh my gods!" Emily Sevensheep gasped. "Louise the Zero's ineptitude actually BROKE the Magic keeping the world together!"

"What the Hades?!" Louise snapped at her. "It's my fault now?! Wait, wouldn't that mean I'm just TOO GOOD at magic instead?!"

"Zero, you idiot!" Tomoe screamed while a feral wind began blowing the skirts of Class 3-C's students. "What have you brought upon us?!"

"It, it it must be a total coincidence!" Louise cried, waving her stubby arms around now she had briefly transformed into a panicking Chibi. "I can't even make a Light spell right, how do you now believe me able of… this?!"

Shirley the duck, keeping her aloof coolness even now, simply frowned at the clouds. "Weird, right? Like I never saw this coming at all."

"Everyone regroup and head inside!" the teacher commanded. "Headmaster Seras will know what to do! I don't want anyone to-!"

"Miss Chevreusse! Look!" shouted Twilight Sparkle, pointing up, way up, with a fore hoof, while the purple and green baby dragon on her back squinted, following her gaze as best as it could. So did the others, and they saw a quickly approaching twinkle plummeting from the middle of the celestial extensions at a maddening speed, hurling down towards terra firma.

"It's a bird?" Arika Yumemiya asked.

"It's one of those flying machines from Vetus?" Jessica de Alkirk wondered.

"No! It's... It's… **a boy**!" the dark skinned and red haired Kirche said.

"Huh," the blond Montmorency huffed. "Well, you're the expert on boys here, so you should—GET DOWN!" she shrieked as the object from above gained even more speed, then slammed down brutally, right on the face of a paralyzed and utterly terrorized Louise.

In the split second that only Raspberyl's inhuman eyes could register next, she could get her first clear glimpse of what had just hit her unfortunate classmate, no doubt to smash her skull open in contact. Except because there wasn't any gore and fragments of skull flying and splattering all around, and in their place she could see, just for that most fleeting of moments, the face of the falling boy had just mashed against Louise's, their lips awkwardly coming together in a no doubt extremely painful collision course.

There was an overpowering blue glow that swept all across the Academy grounds, and everybody was tossed around like pins.

Louise dropped like a dead weight and fell unconscious, the softly grunting boy landing on top of her lithe body.

* * *

In his dream (although he supposed it was rather a nightmare, since it felt like one) he was standing alone in a wide, white featureless space with no limits in sight. There was not a clear divide between the floor and the rest of the place either, no walls anywhere; and if he had to guess, he would have said what there was above him was a sky, but only because it seemed to lack the feeling of depth the boundaries marked by a ceiling should have had.

The boy walked in silence across that aseptic, eerily silent site until he reached an ice sculpture. It depicted a very pretty girl with glasses and two side braids, wearing an open lab coat over a high school uniform. Another ice statue of a happy looking girl holding two pom-poms and wearing a miniskirted cheerleading outfit stood close to it.

As the boy kept on walking, he saw more of such figures. Only a few were male, including a young man holding a steering wheel in his hands and a lanky man in a hakama and sandals, holding a hangman's noose in a hand. There rest were all female, and rather attractive. They included a short haired girl in another hakama, a short girl with long hair and round facial markings, a long skirted innocent looking girl who looked pulled straight out of a John Tenniel illustration, and a busty girl with long hair carrying a gigantic spiked mace.

Then the air around him became suddenly cold, very cold, to the point just taking a breath felt like filling his lungs with cripplingly chilly soft vapor. An ethereal cold mist swept through the surroundings, enveloping the ice figures, and another girl stepped out from behind the sculpture of a freckled young woman riding a compact four wheeled vehicle. She had pale skin and very short gray hair, and dressed in a military fashion, almost boyish, golden buttons on a dark gray shirt and pants.

"Negi," she said, her voice low, even and toneless, her tranquil ice blue eyes fixed on him. "Aren't you ashamed? To fail your students, no, your partners, like this…"

"Who… Who are you?" he heard himself gasping, taking a step back in instinctive fear.

Instead of answering his query, she shook her head sadly. "The son of that great man, and such a disappointment. You got them all involved in your quest, when even you were not sure where it would take you. Look, now, at the results of your hubris. Their lives are all in your conscience, Negi."

"I, I don't know what are you talking about!" he said, shuddering. "Why are you—"

"No," she said, reaching over to grab the head of an ice girl with glasses and a ponytail, which brandished a heart-topped scepter of sorts. "Why are _**you**_ here, Negi?" she asked.

And she crushed the head between her fingers, sending sharp shards everywhere. Negi screamed in pain as several of them sank into his left shoulder and chest, and then into his eyes, blinding him…

* * *

" **AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"** he screamed, bolting upright on the bed.

"Oh, good," said a beautiful mature woman with long light hair, sharply dressed in a white suit with tie, and sitting beside his bed. "I knew the medication would work eventually. You should lie low for now, however."

The startled young man with the wild, reddened eyes snapped his head aside to look at her, filled with dread and confusion. "Who, who are you?!" he asked. "And where am I?!"

The woman smiled softly and bowed her head. "I am," she said, "Headmaster Seras of Ariadne Academy. I came here as soon as I heard you had fallen from the skies during a sudden freak storm. How are you feeling?"

"Huh?" he moved his eyebrows before flinching, taking a hand to his lower left shoulder, feeling the fresh wound under his fingers, and shuddering while the closed gap itched and burned at his own touch. "What is this…?"

"Apparently," the woman said, "you had been grievously wounded before falling on us… well, rather, on Miss La Valliere. We think you had been healed and quite thoroughly right after that, but seemingly the drop and your... landing impact reopened the wound. We have treated it as best as we could, but it was difficult even for our medical team. Whoever did that to you should have, for all rights, murdered you, my son."

"I am not your—" then he stopped, as he realized he did not truly know if that was correct or not. He looked all around, disoriented, and saw Chevreusse sitting by a nearby open window, with a moody, grumpy cute girl with pink hair sitting on the chair next to hers, arms folded over her flat chest. The room they were in was fairly simple but clean and well lit, and judging from the position of the sun in the sky, it was still early in the morning. "So this is… Ariadne Academy?" he weakly mused out.

Seras nodded. "And they are professor Chevreusse The Red Earth and Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere, the girl you fell on."

"I fell on—Oh my!" he gasped. "I, I, I'm so sorry!" he stuttered. Now he seemed to remember dropping directly on someone before falling unconscious. "Did I hurt—"

"DON'T MOVE ANY FURTHER, YOU FILTHY DOG!" the pink haired beauty shrieked, and Negi halted his rise from the bed to realize he was naked under the bedsheet that right now only covered him up to his waist. Yelping in embarrassment, he sat back and covered himself further up, placing his knees right under his chin.

"I'm sorry…" he timidly mumbled, averting his gaze from them.

The Headmaster chuckled for a moment, faintly amused, before regaining a serious expression. "Don't worry about her. Her injuries were much less serious than yours, and we have fully healed her back by now. What is your name?" she asked him.

"Negi," he said. He remembered that much, at least.

"Negi what?" the young girl growled.

"I can't remember," he admitted.

The girl slapped herself on a knee, clearly frustrated. "Just my luck! Not only a commoner, not only not a majestic and powerful beast, but an amnesiac to boot!"

"My Lady, please, let us not misjudge before knowing every fact…" the plump woman said.

"My apologies, you are right," she replied. "Who knows, he might be a spy playing the amnesia card to fool us!"

"That, that is not exactly what I meant…"

Seras kept on looking at Negi. "Around the same time you showed up amongst us, there were reports of Gateports to Mundus Vetus exploding or shutting down all over Mundus Magicus. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

"No, Ma'am," he shook his head, which felt like it was going to explode from the inside any moment now.

" I see," Seras said. "Who injured you, then, and why?"

"I don't know that either, sorry!" he lamented, taking a hand to his forehead.

"What _do_ you know, then? What do you remember about yourself?" the Headmaster pressed on.

"W-Well… My name is Negi… and… I… I think, no, I KNOW… I know I like… I like…"

The three women edged closer, curiously, as the boy seemed to have a dawning epiphany that lit up his face.

"I _**love**_ tea!" he brought his hands together. "And dinosaurs! And collecting antiques!"

The three women all facefaulted on the wooden floor.

" **You idiot!** That, that is not relevant at all!" Louise yelled at him while springing back to her feet.

Negi blinked. "I suppose it's not, but… it's all I can remember. Didn't I have anything on me? Documents that prove my identity? A cellphone? I seem to remember I might have one, or was that my roommate? Wait, I had a roommate? I guess so, but I can't place their face…"

"What is a cellphone?" Louise grumbled.

"A personal communication device used by many across Mundus Vetus," Seras answered. "Well, I suppose that answers our first question about your place of origins, at the very least, Negi. And judging from your accent, I would say you hail from the hills of Wales. Curious and curiouser…" she rubbed her chin in deep thought before asking, "What do you know about Evangeline A.K. Mc Dowell?" she asked.

At the mention of that forbidden name, Louise and Chevreusse both recoiled in fear, their skins crawling. They had not been expecting that, but Negi only blinked cluelessly, oblivious to their terror. "… who?" he innocently asked.

Louise swallowed, pointed a finger at him, and waved it irritably. "D-D-Don't play the fool now, you, you fiend! As if anyone could ignore who is Evangeline Mc Dowell, the Mistress of Darkness, the Queen of Puppets, the-!"

"My Lady, please!" a horrified Chevreuesse asked.

Louise realized what she was saying and bit her tongue, then blocked her mouth with both hands. "Ah, that's right! I'm so sorry!"

Negi blinked slowly and thought it over. Finally, he answered, "That… sounds like she's some sort of mean person? I guess it should ring some bells, but it doesn't. My apologies…"

"Then please see if this jolts your memory back," Seras said, pulling a card out of her breast pocket and showing it to Negi. Louise and Chevreusse were close enough to look at it too, and once again they almost fell on their backs, scared out of their wits. "We found this in the pockets of your pants, along these ones," she began to pull one card after another, in a quick succession, dropping them on the sheet covering Negi's modesty until all sixteen of them were on display before them. The boy's jaw loosened considerably. "Are those bells ringing yet?"

Negi gulped the thick knot in his throat and moved his head from a side to another reluctantly. He recognized a few of the girls in those cards as the ice sculptures from his nightmare, but as much as he tried, he could not remember their names, or what did any of them mean for him. "Are all of these… mine?" he asked. "Who knows, maybe I was holding them for someone else…!"

"Don't try to sneak out of it now, you filthy commoner! Casanova! Cheap Don Juan and ally of darkness!" a livid Louise cried to him, pulling out a black riding crop and threatening Negi with it. "It disgusts me so much, knowing I've become your latest intended victim…!"

"Whu-What?" Negi said, growing very scared of this girl. He had the sensation she would have started whipping him with the crop long ago if only the two adults had not been with them. "I have no idea what are you talking about! I fell on you, yes, but it could have killed me, so I'm sure I didn't intend to do it! And what does that have to do with these cards, please?"

"Oh dear," Seras said. "Do you mean you don't remember HOW exactly you fell on Miss La Valliere?"

"Well, to be honest, no, I don't know that either," the boy had to say.

Seras half sighed. "Miss La Valliere, please show it to him."

Louise cringed. "But, Headmaster…!"

"It's an order," the woman coldly said, and with a shudder of fear, Louise nodded and reluctantly pulled another card from a pocket on her cape. Then she held it before Negi, hands trembling, as she tilted her head aside, making as if she wanted to suck in and eat her own lips, eyes tightly squeezed.

Negi paled as he saw the card. It showed a standing figure of that girl in her student uniform, stretching a hand ahead in a dynamic, arrogant action pose, a leg slightly flexed up, cape frozen in mid-flow around her. And it read as thus.

 _Louise Franciscae Le Blanc De La Valliere_

 _Maga Inanem_

"I have no idea why do I keep doing this so often," Negi pondered aloud, "but I think I should start thinking about how to stop it?"

 _Now_ , before the women could act fast enough as to stop her, Louise angrily bashed her crop between Negi's eyes.

" **STUPID DOG!"**

* * *

A small, panting figure moved swiftly between the trees and bushes, stopping only occasionally as to regain some breath.

She thought she had, somehow, escaped her pursuers for the time being. Although she had no idea how, in all honesty. She had only started running and then never stopped, using every trick and stratagem learned in Library Exploration to move across the treacherous woodlands, following an erratic path as to throw them and their hounds off her scent. Good thing she had not lost her memory after landing pretty much on her head, or anything like that. She would have been lost in every sense, had she lacked her survival skills in this strange, inhospitable world where apparently she had been branded some kind of outlaw almost immediately after her arrival.

After crossing two narrow rivers, she had started growing seriously tired, but forged on ahead drawing strength from sheer drive. Oh, if only she had listened to Haruna for once and made a Pactio with Negi-sensei, or even Inugami-kun. That way she could contact Nodoka and the others even from a long distance! Damn her stupid, stubborn shyness, if she escaped out of that one with her life, she wouldn't keep on doubting and act on her romantic impulses like Haruna kept on babbling about. She had just truly realized how short life was…

No, she couldn't and wouldn't think negatively. This had to be some sort of mass misunderstanding, but soon the cameras at the Gateport would prove they had been the victims back there, and they would be cleared up, and now, if only she could keep herself out of trouble until everything settled down, then maybe she could just—

Ayase Yue stopped after reaching the end of the woods, halting before a steep hillside and looking down at a majestic castle of stone built at the valley below. She breathed in, impressed, and drank on the fascinating sight of the massive building stretching over several blocks' worth of ground. It looked like a civilized fortress inhabited by reasonable people, not barbarians or warlords. Maybe, if she approached them and asked nicely, making clear her intentions were peaceful, they could help her to…

Then she saw a smirking blonde with dog ears and a tail swooping down towards her on a witch's broom, her intense blue eyes squarely focused on her.

"Well, so here we have another one!" the stranger said triumphally. "You are under arrest in the name of Ariadne Academy, intruder! I am Emily Sevensheep, Cadet in Training, and you have just violated our academic boundaries!"

* * *

 **Pactio Partner Number Seventeen: Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere**.


	4. Special Chapter 1

Akamatsu Ken and Kodansha created and own _Mahou Sensei Negima!_

Kumeta Koji and Kodansha created and own _Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei._

I make no money from this.

* * *

 **Twenty Five Other Times Negi Made a Pactio**.

* * *

 **Special Chapter: Chisame's Shadow**.

* * *

It felt certainly unfair, and even more certainly too strange for coping, to be the pursued party after years of being a DEEP LOVER—or stalker, as lesser minds would constantly call her. Through those years, the short haired girl who currently ran through the deep rainforest had developed keen skills of tracking and survival that barely were keeping her alive right now… but those skills had always been aimed at keeping her a lovesick apex predator presiding over the rest of the Mahora student wildlife, not a prey.

And yet now, completely cut away from her alma mater, lost in the jungles of another world under a nocturnal sky with two moons, the petite girl had to keep on moving quickly between the thick and tall trees, jumping over their bulbous, treacherous roots to avoid stumbling onto them, if she wanted to keep any chance of staying alive to look for her Chisame-sama another day. She could hear the gigantic crab-like beast with long, lurching legs plowing its way through behind her, the large black eyes on its antennae scanning the forest for her. She had just barely survived her first encounter with the creature minutes ago, by the river where she had been drinking and washing the tears off her face, and while her much smaller size gave her a mobility edge amongst the trees, the monster was proving to be much faster than she had anticipated; too much for her comfort.

However, the furtive stealth she had honed to surprise others with her presence, coupled with her natural human intellectual edge, helped the young woman to slip away from the ravenous arthropod on spiderlike armored legs, after she took a side detour down a narrow rock ledge. After reaching the bottom of that formation, she scurried through a thick passage of bushes, eventually leading her into a dark clearing with mossy, wet ground that made soft squishy sounds whenever she gave a step. By that point the student was exhausted, and she was aware the noise could alert more local predators, so she sat down under a towering tree and slumped down with a forlorn sigh, lamenting her luck.

Following the latest and greatest in her long list of everlasting loves, Hasegawa Chisame, the angel of class 3-A, and her boy teacher Negi Springfield, the unfortunate girl had been attacked by a gang of superpowered hooligans and thrown into an unknown parallel world, where **she could have died!** from the fall and violent landing, as her own homeroom teacher would have said, finding herself completely alone and with no clue of where to go. Worst of all, with no Chisame-sama or any ideas on where to find her!

Fortunately, the top of a tree had cushioned her fall, somehow, and she had not even broken any bones. Perhaps the beatings taken from a few of her prior boyfriends had helped too, by toughening her body that much. But that mattered little now! What mattered was—

"Where the hell I am?" she asked herself, with a hand on her face. "Why do these things keep happening to me?"

She exhaled, reached into her breast pocket, pulled one of the tiny pills her therapist had prescribed her, and swallowed it down dry. She still kept on shaking and twitching, her thoughts gravitating back to Chisame over and over. She hugged her upper body and nibbled on her lower lip, rubbing her knees together.

"Chisame-sama, Chisame-sama, please come back to me, Chisame-sama…"

She was used to knowing where to find anyone at any given time, but these grounds were completely unknown to her, and the distances separating her from the rest of Ala Alba were simply too wide for her to cover. The girl took both hands to her head, which felt about to explode. The voices were returning, mocking and taunting and chastising her, and the girl began to softly weep to herself.

"Chisame-sama… I beg you… I'm so lonely without you…"

" _CHISAME-SAMA!" she had yelled, reaching for her, only for Chisame-sama to ignore her altogether while reaching for Negi-sama herself…_

 _And then they all were blown by the force of a deafening impact in opposite directions, scattered away from each other violently, and the last thing Matoi saw before everything became white were Miyazaki Nodoka's legs kicking around madly as the purple haired girl flew over her head…_

"Damn it! I couldn't save you!" she cried, slamming both feet against the ground. "If only you had reached for me and not for him! If only you had taken MY hand while you could! We should be together now!"

"Kaw? Kuuu-rawwk?" a toucan-like bird with a long colorful thing crawed from a branch right above the girl's head, looking down at her curiously.

"Go 'way," she grunted, resting her chin on her knees. "I'll call you if I need some fried chicken…"

Somehow, perhaps due to the other three pills she took afterward, she was able to fall into an uneasy sleep plagued by nightmares about Chisame-sama.

* * *

The next morning, after putting her makeshift campfire off and throwing the bones of the bird away, she got to walk southward again, inwardly thanking the gods birds in this world seemed to be very trusting. Now her mind was marginally more focused, she had resolved not to give in to Despair and put her resolve into finding Chisame-sama, who HAD TO BE ALIVE. She remembered checking a few Mundus Magicus maps with Chisame-sama and Negi-sama before the trip, and she suspected the jungles she was at were the Mundus Magicus equivalent of the Amazonian rainforest. If her suspicions were correct, the largest urban centers in the area were located towards the South, and part of her always-ready stalking equipment included a compass she carried on her person at all times. Luckily, it hadn't broken during the fall either.

"Ah! You were there?" she said to herself, as bitterly as Chisame-sama would. "Yes, always… Heh heh, heh heh heh…"

She sniffled several tears back, then fell to her knees and hands, head slumping down. "What I wouldn't give right now… to have anyone to speak to! Chisame-sama, Negi-sama! Forehead! Chiri-chan, Ai-chan! Taisuke-kun, Kaere-chan! Everyone… what if everyone else has died? What if… what if I'm all alone now?!"

She dried the tears off her cheeks and kept on walking, with no aim other than the general South direction, knowing well she was unlikely to make it. She felt confident her Girl Scout skills would allow her to find enough water and food for days if not weeks, but her own mind would do her way sooner than that if she couldn't find some emotional relief quickly.

"If only I had a Pactio," she mused to herself as she walked over an old abandoned bridge over some monstrously high cliffs, following a pathway that obviously had been abandoned for decades, "maybe I could fly around like Sora-neesama, or I could call the others for help. Why was I so stupid and proud? Thinking my meager abilities on their own would be enough to protect Chisame-sama! Feh! If only she could see me now…"

She kept on crying in morbid silence while marching, all day long, under a fierce tropical sun that made her sweat until she stunk like a filthy pig. She didn't especially care. For a moment she thought she had reached civilization when she glimpsed a few mining sites in the jungle, but it didn't take her long to realize they were long abandoned, perhaps by the same men who had built the bridge and the small road swallowed by the plants. She even thought she saw some rests of human skeletons amidst the tall grass at the edges of the deserted camps, but she didn't particularly care to come closer to check on them.

By the time the sun was setting down, it didn't look like she was any close to leaving the jungle or finding any humans, not even aboriginal tribes, yet. Once again the quiet, gnawing Despair began biting at the edges of her soul, and she started biting her fingernails. "I should… I should find a place to rest now, maybe? But, but each wasted moment might count, right? Chisame-sama, what do you think I should do? Why won't you answer to me, Chisame-sama? What did I do wrong? Other than losing you, that is?"

She stopped at the middle of a sinister, foggy swampland without even knowing how she had wandered in there in the first place. The ground ahead seemed too unstable and frail for her to walk across it without sinking, but she didn't want to head back and lose any gained distance either. So she simply froze there, at a complete loss about what to do.

"I wish," she said, "I could stab someone right now."

Then the water rippled, several feet away from her, and a few bubbles rose to its murky surface.

"Huh?" Matoi said, her head moving towards that direction.

A frog's eyes surfaced. Round, large, shiny and slimy, staring intently at her.

The girl snorted. "Go 'way, creep," she told the emerged eyes. "I'll call you if I need any frog legs or anything…"

Then a long, thick, bulbous tentacle of a sickening purplish color emerged right along the eyes.

"Uh," Matoi said, giving a step back.

And then another tentacle followed. And a third one. And in a breakneck succession, several more, along a gigantic, massive body attached to the small eyes and the fleshy tendrils, until a giant amphibian monster armed with dozens of tentacles coming out of its mouth towered over her, only its lower body remaining under the liquid.

It roared, and for the first time in years, the girl experienced primal fear of a non-social nature again. Not the fear of being rejected, turned down, mocked or laughed at, but that of mere terror for her very existence…

"No way!" she cried as she pulled her hunting knife out of her clothes, a moment too late and hopelessly too little, as the monster sent one of its elongated tentacles around one of her legs, catching it in a tight squeeze and using it to roughly pull her across the mud and towards itself. "Aiiiieeeeeee!"

Matoi sank the knife into the viscous meat of the tentacle and twisted it as hard as she could, drawing black humors out, but the appendage did not loose her grasp on her. She tried to move it all the way in as to cut the whole tentacle, but it was too big for that, and when it moved next, it did so in a way that moved the knife off and away from its owner's reach. Cursing to herself, the girl tried to kick herself free with her other foot, but another tentacle seized the other leg, her right, and they suspended her in the air, upside down, as the creature kept on examining her curiously.

"What in the world is this, a Z-class movie?!" Matoi protested. "I'll sue! I've been introduced to excellent lawyers through a friend of mine!"

The aberration made some gurgling, short and fast sounds as it moved Matoi around, examining her from every angle.

Okay, now that had done it. No more Miss Nice Girl. She would have to get serious and mean now!

So she stared at it. Hard.

 _ **JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**_ , she stared threateningly.

The small frog eyes just blinked stupidly, and then a third tentacle snaked under Matoi's shirt, feeling the soft, tender skin of her belly carefully.

"D-Damn perverted animal!" Matoi shrieked. "No! You can't do this, I want to marry Chisame-sama! Maybe I'm not a human-virgin, but I really want to stay a tentacle-virgin for her!"

The tentacles began oozing a bubbling, sizzling liquid that started melting Matoi's shirt, stockings and shoes off, although it didn't seem to hurt or burn her skin.

Matoi further panicked. "H-Hey, never in the first date! Damn, where's Nagase's aunt when you need her! Enough of this, you hear me!"

By now, tentacles were all over her body, keeping her firmly in place, and the monster's mucus already had burned all of her clothes but her panties and parts of her stockings. She still shook in the vicious grapple as much as she could. "I'm not going to close to some seafood reject like you!" This was exactly what Chisame-sama would do in a situation like that, right? Stay defiant to the end? "I'll rejoin Chisame-sama yet! You just wait and see! You can't do this to me! You, you,-!"

A tentacle slapped her in the ass, and she yelled, "Okay, you proved your point, but eating me is more than enough! You don't have to rape me as well, you perv!"

As the tendrils lifted her further and suspended her over the open maws of the beast, the girl closed her eyes and readied herself. _Chisame-sama, I'm so sorry! Please be happy with Negi-sensei and never become a sour NEET hikikomori or any stupid crap like that! As long as you're happy, my death won't be senseless…!_

The tentacles lowered her then…

 _Chisame-sama, I love you! If only I could see you again…!_

And then she heard a familiar, low, almost sadly crooning, _"Bure bure bure bure…"_

And a wide, black beam coming from a side pierced directly through the monster's body, making it shake and release Matoi in an agonic tremor.

As her body lost all momentum or grip and she fell headfirst into the waters below, all Matoi could think of was—

* * *

"WHAT IF I HAD DIED?!"

"Tsunetsuki-san?" he asked the obvious as the angry girl rose from the water before him. "Why are you here?" he asked the not so obvious.

"Why?! Why am I here?!" she foamed off the mouth at the tall, lanky and bespectacled man in the old hakama, wooden ruler in hand, who now stood by the dead monster's body. "Gee, I don't know, maybe it has something to do with me being there while the villains were trying to kill us all and destroying the whole damn Gateport!"

"Oh!" he said. "You mean… you were there?!"

"Yes, always!"

"W-Well…" Itoshiki Nozomu bashfully scratched the back of his neck with the ruler, "I should've known, but I didn't remember seeing you there at all. Then again, that's your main talent, remaining out of sight, and I should have imagined you wouldn't be away from Hasegawa-san at any moment, how stupid I am…"

"Yes, you are!" she readily agreed. "Who did you think you were rescuing, then?!"

"Um, well," her teacher told her. "You are dressed just like Hasegawa-san was, and it was dark, and you cursed as much as her, so I thought you were here. I was wondering why Hasegawa-san would have had cut her hair short since her arrival here, however…"

"You idiot!" she snapped at her. "Why, I am in a good mind to kill you now! How could you mistake a failure like me with the glorious Chisame-sama! I want to kick you! I… I want to… I want to die." Her voice cracked weakly. All of a sudden she had crumpled down into the bog, curling up in a sobbing ball at his feet, so drenched for someone who had just fallen and then stepped out of the water just as quickly that he thought for a moment it had been raining in that area, before a quick look up at the sky told him otherwise. The night was clear and starry.

"I know the feeling," her teacher nodded, tenderly covering her torso with his hakama top and inviting her to walk onto higher grounds with him with a subtle gesture. She only crawled up on all fours, like a hurt animal that has lost all its strength. "Please be careful with your steps. I think that's some defecation from this creature right over there. Anyway, Tsunetsuki-san, it happens I always carry a kit for the would-be-finders of my corpse along my suicide kit. Make yourself comfortable, I'll make you something hot to drink. Tea, coffee or cocoa?"

 _"Cocoa,"_ she whispered, hugging her knees on the moss and under a tree, rocking back and forth against the trunk softly. _"Chocolate helps me cope with pain."_

He tried to smile comfortingly. He wasn't used to it, but he thought he had pulled it off. More or less. "Same thing with me. Wait a minute, please."

Matoi nodded quietly, waiting patiently staring at nothing. She repeated something over and over under her breath, until she asked, "Would you please put poison in it?"

"Nope. I'm suicidal, not murderous," Itoshiki's voice told her from where he had quickly set up a small fire, preparing a couple of tiny chocolate cups from one of his unexplainable (possibly magical) portable sets. "Above all, I'm no child murderer. Sorry. Please kill yourself at your own home, in your own time."

"Home," Matoi repeated blandly. "You know, even if we still were at Mahora, I couldn't even think of going there. Since Kiri left, I only go there to... to look after my shrine, and I... I don't wanna see that right now..." She started crying again. "I just want to see _her_ …!"

He returned to her side with both steaming cups, giving one to Matoi and keeping one for himself. He didn't poison his either. One of his students really needed him, and his demise would have to wait until that was addressed. Annoying or not, they were still his duty. "Concerned about Hasegawa-san's whereabouts, no doubt? You know she is far more resilient than she looks. I'd have expected you to get familiar with her strength through her showing her affection with denial and use of blunt objects to the head by n-"

"For all I know she died and I lost her forever yesterday," the girl growled.

"Now, now," he said, "It is true the situation seems hopeless, but one should always remember… um… I really don't know what to say," he admitted. "I have never even attempted to comfort someone by offering them faith on their future. Oh, if only Kafuka-san were here!"

Itoshiki ran a hand down his pale face. "How unexpected! What a twist of fate! This really was a completely random development! Much like those modern writers put in their stories when they want to shatter the status quo, instead of properly developing previously existing plot points! And they even take pride on it and call it 'surprise turns' or worse, 'crack writing'! Comparing it to prohibited drugs, as though they were somehow praiseworthy, even! Or they finish series with nonsensical relationships where the protagonists are with people they never favored through the series!" As he yelled that, somehow, a vague shadow of a faceless Digimon cast floated behind him for a moment. "Or absurd revelations like 'The lead girl was dead all along' or 'The lead girl travels back in time to undo her own heroic sacrifice'! Or 'The main villain was defeated off-panel and we never show who the male protagonist chose to be his wife'! Now it must happen in real life as well? Is it infectious? I'm in despair!" He gestured with his hands. "The fact that reality imitates contemporary Japanese media which don't even know how to tie their previous loose ends without jumping ahead in time and dropping beloved characters has left me in despair!"

She slapped his face. "Focus on my suffering, Sensei!"

"... sorry. But maybe, first you should put some clothes on? I happened to bring a spare hakama along my kits…"

Ignoring him altogether, Matoi paced back and forth, suddenly possessed by nervous, grim vitality. "I tried making her proud by doing all I could to stand at her side as her ever present protector, but Chisame-sama didn't even notice. I meant nothing to her. And now, I realize, with good reasons! I really was a nobody thinking I was worth her time! All the DEEP LOVE and devotion I've given her are not enough if I can't protect her. And what if I have lost her, just because I wasn't strong enough as to keep her safe? I don't know how I could ever keep on living without my Chisame-sama! Before her, every love I ever had was as false as that of the Yakuza heir boy and that blondie! I mean, how comes no one else realizes it? It's so obvious!"

"And then you would want me to help kill yourself," Itoshiki reminded her.

She turned back to him. "Yes! You should help me! You're my teacher, and teachers have a duty to help their students cope through pain! Besides, you're the greatest expert on death I know! You've done things to yourself that would've killed any normal human being! And I'm very normal!"

"You are no Hitou-san, Tsunetsuki-san." He placed his bony hands on her shoulders. "Regardless, a few months ago, I might have helped you. My suicide kits are quite comprehensive, after all. However, that was before Negi-sensei and Kaga-san made me realize the precious value of any human life but mine. Even if we were to lose Hasegawa-san, you must live on, Tsunetsuki-san! You're young, and you'll live to be heartbroken again!"

She blinked. "Sensei?"

"You're beautiful," he said, caressing her hair with a finger for a moment, before realizing what he was saying and pulling the finger back as if it had been on fire. "AH! What I mean is, you'll have no problems finding boys, or even girls, your age who find you desirable and erotic! Your own age! Although on second thought, forget I ever said that 'E' word!"

"Itoshiki-sensei, do you find me sexually attractive?" she asked wonderingly.

"NO! I mean, yes, but for people your age, even though people your age shouldn't be thinking about sex!"

 _ **Jiiiiiiiiiiiiii...**_

"Oh, please, no, don't misinterpret my words, I only -!"

"I know," she cut him off. "I still love Chisame-sama, and I always will. No matter how hard and how many times she breaks my heart, cuts it into ribbons, cooks the pieces and feeds them to her two-timing Forehead girlfriend along with a fine glass of innocent baby blood, I'll never stop loving her."

"Ah, well. Th-That's good ... I think."

And she hugged him. "Please, Itoshiki-sensei, give me a Pactio."

"BWEH?!"

"I want to prove my worth to Chisame-sama. If I have a Pactio, I'll have something I can use to find her, and to save her if she's in any kind of danger. That'll make me good enough for her, right? And I'll be actually useful to Chisame-sama and Negi-sama, instead of being just an annoying load. But Negi-sama already has too many partners, and he isn't here anyway, and I don't know any other mages, but you only have Ai-chan, and I don't have the time to look for any other Magister anyway...!"

"B-B-B-But we mustn't! A student and a teacher -!"

"It seems to work for Negi-sama. The Dean knows, and does nothing about it. Not to mention you and Ai-chan. Or are you two already engaged? If so, I'll step back and won't hurt her, choosing to throw myself, for mankind's sake, off a -"

"W-W-We aren't anything but student and teacher, seriously!"

"Then please give me a Pactio, too. I know you're powerful as well. You should be able to have at least two Ministra. I beg you!"

"N-No!"

Standing on the tips of her toes, she kissed his mouth. And his brain short circuited. Years of having boyfriends to stalk had made her a kissing expert, in addition to her other acquired talents. Her tongue went drilling straight into Itoshiki's mouth, with a fire even Asakura Ryoko could not have matched. He felt himself hard.

She smiled in a broken way, rubbing her mostly naked body against the hardness she felt poking against her. And you can't tell me you would hate it. Is this-"

Sheepishly, Nozomu pulled his magical wooden ruler that doubled as his wand out of his robe.

"Oh," Matoi sounded slightly disappointed before rubbing herself again. And she blinked. "But, I still feel..."

Turning his head as much as he could without moving the rest of himself, he only blushed.

"Uhhhh." Matoi had serious second thoughts before saying, "Whatever the case is, we already kissed, so what's just another kiss for a good cause?"

"Promise me you won't use your Pactio to hurt others?" he meekly asked.

"Do I look like Chiri-chan?"

"Just another kiss?" he breathed out raggedly.

She nodded.

Turning around with a heavy sigh, he walked over to a large backpack he had left aside on the ground before rescuing Matoi. He reached into it and pulled out a small creature that had been sleeping inside. As its long ears flopped down and unfolded, Matoi could see it was a very funny looking bunny.

"N-N-No, please, I'll pay, don't cut off my -" the bunny gurgled before blinking awake. "Master? Wh-What do you want from me?"

"Mesousa-san," his owner held him before Matoi, who was staring curiously at him. "I believe I have never properly introduced you to Tsunetsuki Matoi-san, or viceversa, have I?"

* * *

She walked out from behind a tree, finally changed out of her wet clothes and into his spare hakama, which looked big on her despite of his extremely gaunt complexion. "Do I look okay?"

"Quite," he had to nod. Overcoming his initial impression, he coughed in discomfort, gesturing for the glowing magical circle drawn between two oddly willow-looking trees, which were very out of place in that kind of forest."Now, I'll understand, and even celebrate, if you're having natural second thoughts about this, in which case we'll agree these events never took place before they could lead us into -"

"I'm fine," she said, strutting impassively past him and bowing to the small creature holding the chalk. "Thank you very much, Mesousa-san." Annoyingly whiny as he was, he at least had better manners than Chamo.

"Oh, it's nothing, ma'am. I'm glad my pathetic efforts can grant at least some measure of fleeting happiness to anyone," the bunny sobbed, slumping ahead. "Now please step in and take the decision that no doubt will further ruin your lives forever. I need to go back to sleep soon, since my nightmares are the only thing offering me a break from the waking nightmare of life."

"Okay," she huffed. "I got the idea." She walked into the circle, then gave Nozomu a dry come hither look. "Well?"

The teacher gulped audibly, walking to her with hesitating feet that seemed to move on their own accord. "I'm sure this is a terribly bad idea. We should -"

"Yes," she breathed, and leaned up to gently seal her lips on his.

Itoshiki shuddered as the power flowed between them, while the girl closed her eyes, thought of Chisame, and tried to enjoy the goosebumps. It was actually easier than she had expected. Huh, so that was what a Pactio kiss felt like. No wonder girls wanted them so much, and why Negi never protested too much when it was time to make one. She relaxed into the man's tightening, spasming embrace, until he let go of her and the card appeared floating between them.

Itoshiki, still acting mostly on instinct with his rational thought crushed, took a hold of the card, examining it in mechanical silence, with dawning and terrified care, before handing it over to Matoi. She saw the card had her own image in a seemingly festive ensemble of a flower patterned red, white and black hakama, with sandals, and holding a video camera in her hands. Her pose was dynamic and happy, as if she was about to leap into an adventure. It read,

 _Tunetuci Matoi_

 _Amantes Amentes_

"And this means...?" Tsunetsuki wondered.

Itoshiki looked aside in shame. "Some cards, like Kakizaki-san's, hold a Latin saying or proverb instead of a title. No one knows the reason. This one means 'Lovers are Lunatics'."

"Oh," she passively said. "I suppose I can't pose any objections to that. And what does this Artifact do?" she asked, now showing the card to Mesousa.

The rabbit hummed, rubbed his round chin for a moment, and finally said with a reluctant moan, "Change into your Pactio form and I'll show you with a practical demonstration. You know the procedure by now, don't you?"

She nodded. "I've seen Chisame-sama and other girls doing it several times." She realized what she had just said and cringed. "Doing transformations, I mean! Ahhhh, I reminded myself of HER! THE PAIN! THE PAIN IS RETURNING!" she cried, taking her hands to her head.

Mesousa looked up at his Master. "On second thought, Sir, I can say maybe she will make a good complement for your own temper."

Itoshiki, without looking down or saying a word, slammed a foot down on him.

* * *

"Very well, Master," Mesousa gestured around with his fluffy paws, "Stand around there. Yes, that's good. And you, Tsunetsuki-sama, stand right here, and focus your Artifact on the Master."

"Okay," a blank faced Matoi aimed the video camera to her teacher. "Now what?"

"Activate your power, Master," the bunny said.

"I fail to see the point to any of this," Nozomu sighed, "But isn't that always the way? _Bure bure bure bure_ ," he chanted, and his own inner darkness began swirling around him.

"Now cast any simple spell. Nothing complex, please," Mesousa asked him.

 _"Lux,"_ Itoshiki exhaled. A large ball of darkness erupted from an end of his ruler, quickly undoing itself into a ball of light instead, as if turning itself inside out, from black into pure white.

"Now," Mesousa turned to Matoi, "Tsunetsuki-sama, try doing what the Master just did."

"Eh? But I'm no mage. What am I expected to achieve here?"

"Just do it, please. I know it's difficult, just on general principle, to obey a creature who is as lowly and miserable as me, but -"

"Okay, okay, I'll do it," the girl interrupted the rabbit's whining by pointing a hand holding an imaginary ruler ahead. _"Lux."_

Instantly, a much smaller spot of light appeared floating before her, making her and her teacher gasp aloud.

"Like I suspected..." Mesousa nodded slowly. "Tsunetsuki-sama, your Artifact works by copying abilities, although not power levels. Basically, by filming people with it, you can absorb their displayed abilities for your own use. Although, in this case, for instance, it should only work on any one spell at a time."

"But like I said, I'm not a mage! I don't have any magical powers to begin with!"

Mesousa shook a paw. "Almost everyone has hidden magical power to draw from, if they are taught how to do so. Only some, like Takahata-sensei, are completely unable to use magic even if they were taught. Of course, since you are untrained, you haven't developed that power above that very low level you just showed. That's why your spell was so tiny compared to the Master's. Same thing would happen if you should copy one of Ku Fei-san's kicks, for instance. You'd be able to pull that kick off perfectly, but only that particular kind of kick, and with your own level of strength, never as strongly as Ku Fei-san's."

Matoi looked down at the camera. "Skill copying, huh? But I already can do that, by hanging around someone long enough."

"Well, most Pactio powers are an extension of the Ministra's abilities or talents," the bunny exposited. "In this case, you can acquire abilities much faster, with no need for practice. Let me see it, please."

Matoi handed him the camera, and the rabbit hummed while analyzing it. "It seems to have a limited storage, though. You only can hold a certain amount of skills at a time. To acquire others, delete a few of the ones you already had to make for more room. Naturally, like with any Artifact, its capacity will depend on your power level. Become a stronger Ministra, and the Artifact's storage unit will increase itself."

Matoi smiled. "I think this works well enough."

Itoshiki sighed again. "I'm more or less remotely sort-of glad you have overcome your bout of depression, Tsunetsuki-san. Now that you are as okay as you can ever be, what if we all attempt to have as good a remainder of a night's sleep as we can? Tomorrow a taxing death march through the jungle will wait for us, no doubt. "

Matoi, as an answer, blinked almost cutely. "Will you sleep with me after kissing me, Sensei? Oh, you cad!"

"GAH!" his skin crawled. "When did I say anything like that? That sounds too much like a lemon setting trigger for my comfort!"

Matoi yawned. "Don't worry about that, Sensei. I've had more than enough physical contact with you for a night, or the rest of my life for that matter. Do you have any spare futons on you along everything else? We can always sleep apart from each other until it dawn."

After a pause, Itoshiki nodded. "I happen to have brought one tucked into my backpack, indeed. But it'll be me who sleeps here, on the ground. You can have the futon, and over there, where it's warmer and seems safer."

Matoi smiled gently at him. "Thank you, Itoshiki-sensei. You're a kinder man up close than at first sight."

"I'm just acting out of responsibility and duty, that's all," he replied, trying hard not to think about how pretty and charming that small smile was.

He wasn't becoming like Kimura-sensei, damn it!

* * *

 **Itoshiki's Pactio Partner Number Two: Tsunetsuki Matoi**.


	5. Chapter 4

Akamatsu Ken and Kodansha created _Mahou Sensei Negima!_

* * *

 **Twenty Five Other Times Negi Made a Pactio**.

* * *

 **Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang!**

* * *

Special thanks to Darkenning for this chapter's Pactio scenes.

* * *

Murakami Natsumi sighed as she stepped out into one of the huge balconies of the palace, and looked up at the nocturnal skies.

It was a nice, normal, even though incredibly majestic and breathtaking, sky. Then she looked down and saw a wide layer of thick, fluffy white clouds beneath her feet, which definitely was not normal at all. Her freckled face briefly crunched into a shuddering grimace. Now she _really_ understood how Chisame must have felt all the time. No wonder she always was on the edge.

Trying to keep that somewhat unnerving reminder of how far away she was from safe, comfy home (something, in hindsight, she had never thought of Mahora as before) and how utterly lost and vulnerable she remained, Natsumi looked up again and realized the sky was not as normal as a first glance would tell a casual observer, either. This world had two moons, shining like dual silver discs far closer to each other than she would have originally thought.

"Phobos and Deimos…" she sighed to herself, remembering Chizu-nee's lessons.

"Did you know there is a legend about those moons in this world?" an all too familiar voice said from right behind her, almost making Natsumi jump out of her skin.

The petite girl in the white dress spun around, trembling a little as she faced the much taller and bustier young woman in the fancy black gala number who, as usual, had just appeared out of nowhere dangerously close to her with no warning. You would think, after a few years of living together, Natsumi would have grown comfortably used to that by then, but there was no way to grow yourself too used to…

"Ch-Chizu-nee!" the actress stuttered, her hands resting back against the balcony's railing. "I thought, I thought you were talking with Negi-kun and Inugami-kun…?"

The other girl just sighed quietly as she folded her arms over the marble railing, her body leaning ahead slightly, large round breasts subtly shifting down a bit. "Most men aren't really good for conversations, and sadly they seem to be no exception. Besides, La Valliere-san keeps getting between Negi-kun and everybody, and for some reason she seems to dislike me the most of all…"

Natsumi nodded in silence, staring at Chizuru's substantial two reasons jutting from her chest. Even if she didn't like Louise-san herself, she could understand from where she was coming.

"The legend says," Naba Chizuru started, her eyes vacantly fixed on the beautiful orbs of silver, "two thousand years ago, in the lands of the North, there were two physical goddesses who ruled, one over the daylight, the other one after the night. But the younger sister, the ruler of the night, grew corrupted and jealous of her older sister, and of how loved she was by everyone. So she rebelled against her sister and tried to plunge Mundus Magicus into an eternal night. With great sorrow in her heart, the Princess of the Sun had to banish her beloved sister and seal her into a tomb deep inside one those moons, where she has been ever since." Chizuru chuckled softly herself, more amused than pleased. "But of course, even now, after all I've seen, I have problems thinking of celestial bodies like that."

"Right," Natsumi gulped, awkwardly following Chizuru's gaze. She really disliked tales of sisters fighting sisters, and doubly so when they came from Chizu-nee. Even without trying, she had a way to make them into understated terror stories, at least in Natsumi's admittedly biased opinion. "You… You like to think of them in scientific terms."

"What were you thinking about here, all alone like this?" Naba wondered then. "Everybody is having fun, even Negi-kun. I thought you liked parties?"

"Not when I feel I don't belong," Natsumi confessed, because while Chizu-nee scared her, she also felt comfortable opening her heart to her in matters that didn't directly relate to how much she scared her. "It's easy for you and Iinchou, you've always been upper class, but…"

"Truth be told," Chizuru confessed in turn, "this isn't the kind of high society party I like best either. And that is why *I* am here."

Natsumi blinked. "So it isn't because Negi-kun and Inugami-kun bore you?"

"Of course not, Natsumi, there are lots of others I could talk with in there if I wanted to," Chizuru said. "But no one I can be truly myself with."

"Not even Iinchou?" Natsumi dared to ask.

Another sigh. "Especially not Ayaka, sadly."

"Eh?"

"Noooothiiiiiiing."

For once, Natsumi had enough courage to keep on pressing at this point of their conversation. "You really like Iinchou that way, don't you, Chizu-nee?"

And then she instantly flinched back, waiting for the subtly terrifying backlash, for the black aura slowly creeping towards her as Chizu-nee's eyes briefly turned a dead blank, and her smile grew downright monstrous while remaining just as placid. _'I don't have the slightest idea what are you talking about, Natsumi…'_

But the habitual reaction didn't come. Whether it was a result of Chizuru's own accumulated stress of late, her unwillingness to be scary in that perfect flattering dress, or something else, Natsumi didn't know, but her friend only closed her eyes and said, "There is no point on dwelling in the impossible."

Natsumi, a bit encouraged by this survival success, decided to push her luck again. "You're aware she's never going to end up with Negi-kun, are you?"

"Even if she doesn't, and you never should underestimate her," Chizuru warned, "it would make no difference for this. She doesn't love me back, not like that, and our families… would never stop getting in the way."

"You could move together here, to Mundus Magicus," Natsumi observed. "I don't think they could bother you here…"

"Don't underestimate them either," Chizuru said, her tone going downright grim, which oddly made her actually less creepy. Far less. She almost sounded human, defeated flesh and blood. "But enough of that. You should make sure Ayaka doesn't end up with him by ending with him yourself, instead. How about this? I'll create a distraction for La Valliere-san, drawing her away, so you can talk to him…"

Natsumi blinked. "If someone like you couldn't strike casual talk with him, what chances do I have?"

Chizuru was now starting to grow visibly exasperated; again, something so unusual for her it didn't register to Natsumi as her habitual brand of scariness, although THIS was also scary in its own way. "Seriously, Natsumi-chan, do I have to guide you every step of the way? Think of your feet! Try talking him on theatre, maybe you'll succeed! Remember he was interested during the Mahorafest!"

"W-Well," Natsumi gulped as Chizuru all but pushed her back into the ball, "I suppose you're right, but what if—"

"Oh, but if it's the Dynamic Duo!" Haruna almost bumped directly into them as soon as they entered the secondary hall the closest to the balcony, actually pushing a visibly awkward aged up Kotaro around. "Have you seen Nodoka-chan around?"

"Why should we, Saotome-san?" Chizuru asked, gracious but also rather coldly. "After all, if you can't find her, there's no way we could have, right?"

"Ara, ara," Haruna grinned, consciously mimicking Chizuru's usual tone. "Looks like rekindled contact with the jet set has renewed someone's lording status over the commoners, hasn't it? I was just asking a simple question, Ojou-sama…"

"Not at all," Chizuru said, "it's just that, well, Miyazaki-san and Ayase-san rarely stray away from you unless they are actively hiding from you…"

"Fie, as if they'd ever do that," Haruna said, discreetly pulling on Kotaro's sleeve to stop his newest attempt to slip away. "As if there was anything to hide from in something as simple as settling a romantic score…!"

Natsumi flinched visibly, and she and Kotaro shared a look of mutual commiseration.

Chizuru actually broke into a short miniature Noblewoman's Laugh. "Oh ho ho! Well, if you say so, Saotome-san. I wish you the best of lucks, but we're far too busy with our own pursuits. Inugami-kun, where did you leave Negi-sensei, please…?"

"I didn't leave him, I was abducted away from him," Kotaro muttered. "Last time I saw him he was with the Pink Spore at the main hall, and they—"

"Thank you, Inugami-kun, you are a dearie, have a good evening," Chizuru began all but dragging Natsumi away again. The freckled actress whimpered under her breath and weakly tried to reach for help; Kotaro's unconscious motion of a helping hand was stopped when both captors decisively pulled their respective victims into opposite directions.

"This is stupid," Kotaro said as he reluctantly followed Haruna. "We have no time to waste on this! That governor guy will arrive any moment now…"

"All the more reason you and Nodoka need to be ready for his arrival," Haruna said through clenched teeth. "I can feel that guy's up to no good. I mean, he's a politician, for God's sake!"

"Could you say it any higher?" Kotaro groaned while pulled through another of the many dozens corridors he had seen in that place. "I think there are still some in this palace who haven't heard ya…"

"Oh, shut up," Haruna said while approaching a butler walking their way with a tray. "Hey, good man," she said, pushing her chest ahead while casually taking a snack from the tray and flipping it into her mouth, "where would Lord Godel happen to have his nearest library room?"

"His library room?" Kotaro said. "Why would you ask for… oh, right, for a sec I forgot who were we talking about…"

* * *

"There," Chizuru said as she stopped at the entrance of the main hall, spotting Negi's adult form standing along a grumpy Louise by one of the largest tables, the pink haired girl standing in a frowning silence while Negi chattered with two excited and beautiful young women. One of them, in a radiant white dress, had short black hair and a rather curvy and full figure for someone her tiny size. The other one, who seemed far less childishly excited and far more sensually thrilled, almost wrapping herself around Negi, was somewhat taller, with longer legs and a quite skimpy gala dress, plus light blueish hair made in two remarkable side drills. "What a luck! Hasegawa-san and the others aren't close either."

Natsumi gulped. "Wh-Who are those two ladies? I hadn't seen them before…"

"Oh, they're just Princess Amelia from Seyruun and Princess Martina from Zoana," dismissively said Chizuru, who had kept herself up to date on all local politic matters as well as she could over the last few weeks. "Don't worry about that, it's not like they're proposing marriage to him…"

"B-B-But they are PRINCESSES!" Natsumi whimpered, paling hideously.

"Which means they are too good for hiiiiim!" Chizuru lowly said, before forcing Natsumi to approach them along with her. "Oh, here you are, Sensei!" she cheerfully called out, feigning surprise. "Oh! And these no doubt are the honorable princesses of Seyruun and Zoana! We are so honored!" she not-so-subtly pushed Natsumi down with herself to fall to one knee before them.

"Ah, ah, yeah, I mean yes, we are… not worthy…?" Natsumi gulped, feeling the icy glare of the blue haired young lady, clearly annoyed at the interruption.

"If you say so," Princess Martina agreed.

The black haired girl, instead, just laughed good naturedly. "Oh, please, don't do that! It makes me uncomfortable! Let's see, let's see, they are…" she looked back at Negi, then asked, "Chizuru and Natsumi?"

Natsumi gasped. "You told, he told you about us?!"

Princess Amelia broke into fast paced giggling while Negi blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "He's been talking about the whole lot of you through the whole conversation!" she shared. "He sure holds you in great esteem!"

Louise looked aside and mumbled something about dogs worrying more about their packs than about their masters.

"Without my students," Negi said humbly, his gaze low, "I never could have made it anywhere. I owe everything to them and my teachers…"

Louise rasped harshly as she held a tiny fist before her own mouth.

Amelia blinked, looked into her cleavage, and pulled something out, innocently offering it to her while Martina facepalmed. "A mint, Lady La Valliere?"

Chizuru gave a short, understated chuckle. "My, that's so sweet and considerate from you, Professor. However, while we hate interrupting your quality time with such exalted company, I am afraid matters have surfaced amongst us that demand for your immediate attention…"

Negi tensed up in concern. "Was it Chisame or Ayaka?"

Chizuru blinked, then said, "Nothing like that!"

"Misa, then?" Negi guessed. "Haruka?"

Chizuru sighed. "No, although I suspect we'll hear about Haruna soon enough. But please, if you could come with us for only a moment…"

"But, but we can't interrupt PRINCESSES!" Natsumi said.

"Oh, I'm sure there will be no hassles as long as someone of a much higher stature than ours stays here to keep them company!" Chizuru offered, then wrapping an arm around a startled Louise's and pulling her between the Princesses. "Please forgive our insolence, Lady La Valliere!"

"Wait, no, I'm not who they want either," Louise stuttered, "I'm a Noble, yes, but nowhere in the same level as a—"

"Attack dog? Mongrel? Familiar?" Chizuru, all smiles, said as she brought Negi and Natsumi away with her as fast as she could without making it look like an exaggerated obvious hurry, only stopping briefly to grab Chamo, who had been sipping from a champagne glass on another table, by the table, the ermine yelping in surprise. "I agree, you are so much of a better match for the royalty! Now, we will be returning your guardian slave shortly, so please don't fret, My Lady…" she gave another short and muted Oh-ho-ho before leaving the hall altogether with the other three, who simply blinked in a stupor all the way.

There was a short silence between Martina, Amelia and Louise then.

"So," Martina finally asked Louise, "how has Henrietta been doing lately anyway?"

Louise only groaned.

Amelia sighed, taking a hand to her cheek as hearts began floating out of her. "What a caring, selfless fighter! He has all the markings of a True Hero for Justice…!"

* * *

The fact that Chamo kept cackling madly all the while he was drawing the circle for the Pactio did nothing to endear the disturbing little creature to Natsumi. Her anxiety had eased to the point where she was no longer quoting horror movie dialogue, but she still regarded Chamo nervously as she stood beside Chizuru on the same balcony where they had talked just minutes ago, holding onto her hand. The fact that Ayaka kept giving her annoyed looks because of that didn't help her anxiety either. They had ran into her and Chisame, who naturally had been looking for Negi fiercely over the last half a hour, on their way there, and Chizuru had no choice but allowing them to tag along as she explained her intentions as best as she could without twisting the truth too much.

Chisame, as was her custom for a while now, had allowed it through a condemning, glacial silence that made Negi squirm harder than any voiced protestations from her would have. Ayaka was just ferociously upset, her fondness for Natsumi barely holding her back.

"Okay, who's on first?" Chamo asked as he finished.

"Natsumi should go first," Chizuru said firmly, before Natsumi could even begin to voice her suggestion that someone whose name was definitely not Natsumi should in fact precede her.

It was somewhat easier for her to say, "What, but, Chizu-nee! 'First'? What does 'first' even mean in this context?!"

"Natsumi-san is correct, Chizuru," Ayaka said with controlled coldness. "I understand your stated points about the need for Natsumi-san to become able to protect herself during this enterprise, but 'first' implies you will be 'second', and that is something you had not mentioned before…"

"Shouldn't we wait at least until we are out of enemy territory?" Negi complained without being listened to. "And what if a paparazzo sees us?"

"Oh my," Chizuru said. "You would have to ask Chamo-san about that, Ayaka. I never told him *I* wanted an alliance with Sensei… although I won't reject it either if offered to me…" she teased, wanting to see if she could get a raise out of the blonde.

Chamo blinked. "Um, well, I just assumed… I mean, technically, the both of you are just as defenseless here, aren'tcha?"

Chizuru twitched very slightly and repressed a sudden urge to crush the furry creature under one of her sharp high heels.

"The weasel's right, you know," Chisame snorted. "If this really is about an actual defense and support purpose and not mere shipping crap, then the alleged point applies to you as much as it does to her."

"Shipping?" Negi wondered. "What do ships have to do with any of this?"

Chizuru was slightly taken aback. "Now, Chisame-san, don't misinterpret my intentions! I feel perfectly able to—"

"What, are you saying you are far better at taking care of yourself in an alien world than she is?" Chisame challenged. "Because of all the money you have no access to here, or because you have way bigger boobs? Because otherwise, for all that matters you're in the same exact boat!"

"Chisame-san, you are making everything worse…" Ayaka hissed.

Chizuru, seeing through the attempt to play her own plan against her, swallowed and steeled herself. It looked like she would have to turn the wheel against Hasegawa in trade. "Well, if you put it that way, perhaps you are right, Chisame-san. Maybe I would benefit from the purely strategic bonuses of kissing Negi-sensei."

"Oh dear why," Negi muttered to the heavens.

"Eh?" Chisame grunted, her glasses fogging up.

"She got you there, Chisame-sama," Matoi said from right behind her.

"Ah!" Chisame gasped. "You were there!"

"Yes, always," Matoi nodded.

"Aarrrgghhh, I told you!" Ayaka tugged on her carefully combed and prepared hair with her perfectly manicured fingers. "But do you ever listen to me, Chisame-san? No, no and no! You don't!"

Chizuru decided she actually liked seeing Ayaka being madly jealous because of her, even if it was not _of_ her. One took what one could from life after all, that was what her father had taught her. And sometimes, that meant having to settle with next best things. That was NOT a teaching of her father, but over time she had decided to reject the particular 'Take anything you want even if by force' lesson he had given her.

With just a little more prodding and gentle guidance, she coaxed Natsumi into kneeling in front of Negi, who was also kneeling, in the middle of the circle. They looked at each other with a mutual expression of mild panic on their faces, before turning back (to Chisame and Chizuru respectively) and saying, "I'm starting to think that this might be a bad idea."

"Ah, perfect synchrony, the sign of an ideal couple," Chizuru said. "Hey!" she added, right as Ayaka called that out in objection.

Meanwhile, Chisame was just glowering as Negi looked up at her. "Oh, now you think it's a bad idea, huh? Well, guess what, going around Frenching the last seventeen of us before this was a bad idea, too, but you went and did it anyway! Take some responsibility!"

"What does this have to do with that?" Negi asked bewilderedly.

"Just do it!"

Natsumi let out a great sigh. "Okay," she said. After a brief moment of concentration, she grabbed hold of Negi's shoulders with startling speed and pulled him so that his lips slammed against hers. Her tongue slipped into his mouth and danced there. Her hands reached down to grab his buttocks, pulling him even closer into her embrace.

Chamo, who had been watching over all this with a bland expression, was moved to comment. "... wasn't she supposed to be kinda reluctant? _Pactio_ ," he added as something of an afterthought.

Once she let go of Negi's lips, and cleared her throat, Natsumi proceeded to quote a certain master thespian. "Acting!" she proclaimed.

"Huh?"

"She actually was that reluctant, but she assumed the role of someone who isn't even a little bit reluctant and acted the way that person would. Who were you acting like, Natsumi?" Ayaka asked curiously.

Studiously avoiding Ayaka's gaze as she did not want her blush to get even worse than it already was, Natsumi turned to look at Chamo. "So, um, did that work?"

"Your card, Madame," he said, with a rare moment of sensitivity as he held it out to her.

Gazing down at the card, Natsumi saw a picture of a girl who looked like herself, only much cuter, wearing a really big hat and a remarkably fancy red dress with a long cape, while holding what looked like an old-style opera mask in one hand. " _Actrix Timida"_ , she slowly pronounced the Latin word beneath her name. "What does that -"

"Timid Actress," Chizuru explained.

There was a long silence in the balcony.

"'Timid Actress?'" Natsumi repeated. "Timid Actress?! What the hell! I mean, here I am, trying to be insanely brave, realllly pushing my limits, and I get called 'Timid Actress'? Easily Embarrassed Actress, I could buy, but Timid? I mean, really!"

"Um, oh, actually, that's a bit of a mistranslation," Negi said quickly. " _Timida_ has more of the connotations of 'self-conscious' than 'easily frightened'."

That brought Natsumi up short. She looked at the card, looked at Negi, sloooowly looked around at Chisame, Ayaka and Chizuru, then shrugged and said, "It's a fair cop. So... what do I do with this thing, anyway?" she asked hesitantly, looking from the card to Negi to the card again.

"Well, its first use is that you can use it to assume the powers of a Ministra, during which I'll be able to channel strengthening energy to you, making you stronger and tougher," Negi explained.

"You mean slightly strong and sort-of tough," Natsumi corrected in a fit of self-effacement.

"Ahem. Also, I suspect from the picture that you'll be able to use an Artifact that activates when you call upon it. To do that, you have to say the word 'Adeat'."

" _Adeat?"_ Natsumi repeated.

Chisame promptly stuck a hand in front of Negi's eyes while the magic surged around the petite redhead, doing its usual stripping and redressing.

Chamo sighed. "When will you stop being such a spoilsport, Big Sis?"

When it was done, Natsumi found herself garbed in the clothes her image was wearing on the face of the card, complete with the mask in her now-gloved hand. "Huh," she said. "That was interesting. So what can do with -" she started to ask, raising the mask to her face as she did so. Before she could finish the sentence, she vanished.

"Natsumi?" Negi gasped.

"Where did she go?" Chizuru asked sharply, getting to her feet and glaring at Chamo.

"I don't know," the ermine said quickly, in the most placating tone he could manage. "Maybe it's some sort of teleporting artifact, and it sent her to the Savoy Theatre?"

"Why would she go to the -" Ayaka started to ask.

Natsumi abruptly reappeared, lowering her mask. "Because it's one of the most famous theatres in the world, and very funny, you guys, acting like I wasn't there," she said angrily. "And I know I'm never going to be good enough to tread the boards of -"

"No, no, Natsumi-san, you really vanished!" Ayaka insisted.

Natsumi paused. "Seriously? I... I can turn invisible?" She considered this for a moment, lifted up the mask, and vanished again. A few moments later, Negi also disappeared. He reappeared a moment later, looking a bit stunned. Natsumi popped back into visibility right after, licking her lips before speaking up. "Anything I'm touching also becomes invisible, as long as I'm touching it. This... this could be really, really useful!"

"Yes, you could spy on potential enemies, and scout out areas before we had to invade them," Negi agreed.

"... I was thinking more along the lines of sneaking Chizu-nee and me out after hours so we can come and visit you in the night with no one the wiser, Negi-kun," Natsumi confessed, flustering around as Chisame and Ayaka's eyebrows twitched. "O-O-Only perfectly innocent social visits, I mean!" she hastily added as she saw Negi blushing and blowing steam out his ears. "But, well, that would be good too. And I could sneak around and find out all sorts of useful stuff, watch people so I get a handle on character without bothering them, and - and -"

"- sneak into the boys' locker room and watch them showering," Chizuru supplied.

"Yeah, and - NO!"

"Girls' locker room?"

"Chizu-nee!"

"Please don't use the supernatural powers that I gave you for criminal purposes. That would make me very sad," Negi said, sounding terribly sad. And looking that way, too.

Inexplicably, Natsumi found herself thinking of a pair of shoes the last time she'd gone out shopping. They'd had a very large heel. She wasn't sure why that came to mind right now, though. But it distracted her from the wave of confused mixed impulses that seeing him looking like that put into her mind, which ranged from grabbing him and kissing him yet again to breaking down in tears at his sorrow, to getting annoyed that someone could be that cute.

"I, I'm sorry, Negi-kun, I just got kind of overexcited, that's all," she finally managed to say as she took off the hat and stood there, clutching its brim in a humbled manner. "Um, um, how, how do I turn it off, now?"

"Just say 'Abeat' and it will be returned to card form," Negi explained, recovering quickly.

Natsumi promptly did so, and returned to normal, complete with denudification and reclothing, and complete with Chisame covering Negi's eyes again.

"Seriously, this is so pointless," Chamo complained. "How many times he's ended up seeing you girls naked anyway by now?"

"Shut up. Just... shut up."

"In any event," Negi continued, once he was permitted to look at Natsumi once again. "Once I make a duplicate of your card, which I'll be happy to do right now, I'll be able to telepathically communicate with you -"

Natsumi's eyes began to gleam as she considered ways to employ this. Chisame could practically see the thoughts running through her head. Not that she'd ever had thoughts along the lines of sending sexy messages back and forth by telepathy, doing some sort of telepathic equivalent of 'sexting', or anything like that. Nope. Never even considered it.

"- and even summon you to my location when necessary."

"Huh. Well, then, I guess the whole, 'sneak out of the dorm room invisibly' idea is kind of pointless, then," Natsumi said. "After all, you can summon Chizu-nee and I and, y'know, other people too, whenever you want!"

Negi gaped.

"For perfectly innocent and sensible visit purposes, I mean!" Natsumi added just as fast again.

Negi breathed easier.

"Why would you need to pay a perfectly innocent social visit to someone in the middle of the night, after curfew?" Chisame asked, not even feeling a little bit guilty about needling the panicky smaller girl.

"What are you implying?" Ayaka asked. "Natsumi-san isn't that kind of girl!"

"Of course not!" Negi intervened. "That would be - I mean - using teleportation magic just for... that? It would be decadent, and, and, and ..." Abruptly, he stopped talking for a moment, then groaned. "Ohhhh ... I suddenly think I understand why Father made all those Pactios... simple convenience... I don't feel well..."

"Unlike you, he was not asexual," Chamo said, just a wee bit cold and vindictive. "Deal with it."

"I'm sure you just have to wait until his puberty hits, Chamo-san," Matoi comfortingly told him.

"I sure hope so," the ermine sighed. "Thank you, Matoi-chan. At least you do understand…"

Negi's eyes began spiraling. "Do you mean… after I hit that age, I'll become, too, a… a man who leaves children like Ilya-chan and Siesta-san everywhere, and, and…"

"Well, you said you wanted to be exactly like him or didn't you?!" Matoi tossed her hands up.

"Matoi!" Chisame barked.

"Sorry, I spoke out of line," the stalker quickly apologized.

Negi had gone to support himself against the railing, looking down at the abyss of clouds and trembling violently. Matoi thought he looked worryingly like Itoshiki-sensei right then. "I must be like him… but I can't be like him either! I don't understand… I can't process it!"

"Bro!" Chamo exclaimed. "Don't sick up until after you pactio with Chizuru-sama!"

* * *

After taking a few moments to recover from his distress, Negi found himself seated in front of a cheerfully smiling Chizuru, who tilted up her head and pursed her lips, waiting to be kissed. And Negi moved forward to kiss her, then hesitated, and drew back. "Um," he said, "I think I need to have a word or two with Chizuru-san in private, before I do this."

Chisame opened her mouth to make a sarcastic retort, but Chamo beat her to the punch. "Oh, come on, Bro, what's the problem! You're here, Chizuru-sama's here, the circle's ready, so make with the _**hrk**_."

The annoying thing about being a tsundere, Chisame decided as she squashed the yelping rodent in her hand, was that sometimes one had to be 'dere'. "Okay, take your time," she said roughly. "No hurry. Come on, Timid Actress, Lunatic Lover and Flourishing Burgess."

"Wait, what do you need to say that can't be -" Ayaka asked as she, Matoi and Natsumi were forcefully herded back into the building, with Chisame closing the elegant door to the balcony behind them.

"It's a good question," Chizuru said, delicate eyebrow arced.

"Um, well. It's just ... I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do, Chizuru-san, and I think - is something wrong?" he asked her suddenly somber face.

"I was just remembering another time someone said that to me," she said, distantly, before shaking her head. "You're not, Negi-kun. I'm happy to do this with you."

"But, I mean, you and Ayaka are ..." He trailed off, looking at the bathroom door anxiously.

"I care about Ayaka a great deal," she agreed. "And I'm glad that all of this has given us the opportunity to become closer than we were. But she and I aren't ..." Now she trailed off, as though searching for the words. After an interval, she gave what he recognized as a rather Gallic shrug. "There aren't really words in Japanese for what I would like to see us becoming. But we aren't there, yet, and it's possible that we never will be. If so, it can't be helped."

Chizuru leaned forward then, almost touching her forehead to his. "But in the meanwhile, I have come to care about you a great deal, Negi-kun," she confided. Drawing back, she reached into her shirtfront, rummaging around for a bit, before pulling out the botched card she'd acquired in Kyoto, and holding it up to her face. "Lately, I've been carrying this with me everywhere I go, and I would be very happy to be able to replace it with a genuine card."

Negi's eyes were large round circles. "You, you carry it -"

"Right next to my heart," she confirmed, then, because honesty compelled her, added, "Except when I'm in the shower, the bath or otherwise unclothed. Which is actually a pretty frequent condition, lately, but that's not important. The point is, I think you are a fine young man, and I am very curious to see what you'll be like as you grow up."

"HM!" said Chamo, his head pressed to the other side of the balcony's door. So were those of the girls in there with him, considerably higher.

"But, you stayed out of it all at the start," Negi continued to protest, rather feebly. "So why do you want to get more involved now?"

She rested her hands on his shoulders. With a certain irony, she said what her father had said to her, a short while after he'd told her that he didn't want to make her do anything she didn't want to do. "Things change," she said, and kissed her sweet nephew soundly.

 _"Pactio!"_ Chamo proclaimed as he somehow managed to throw open the balcony's door, sending Chisame, Ayaka and Natsumi falling into a heap in front of it. A sighing Matoi stepped out calmly a moment after. Neither Chizuru nor Negi noticed.

After a moment, Chamo delicately coughed. "Um, you can stop anytime now, y'know."

After another moment, Chizuru pulled back and smiled brightly down at the dazed young boy. "You've become a much better kisser than your duplicate was," she told him, then turned to look at the card. "Now, let's see -"

She fell silent as she looked at it. It depicted her in an elaborate blue blouse and a diaphanous skirt and stockings, seated while holding what appeared to be a shining globe in her hands. In and of itself, nothing too bewildering. The odd part was the virtue printed at the bottom, below her name and the title _Pulchra Astrologa_ (Beautiful Stargazer)

The virtue was _Fides_.

Or 'Faithfulness'.

And that made her blood run cold, because she knew perfectly well that if there was one thing she was not, it was faithful.

Not to anyone present at least...

* * *

 _Back at the main dance hall:_

"So," Martina finished her tale, "as you can see now, Henrietta wants to play sweet and naïve, but actually she's quite a… well, you know!"

"Geh!" a blank faced Louise said, her mind too blown for her to be able to blast that woman for talking that way about her beloved Tristain princess.

Amelia tapped her right foot down and looked around. "I wonder what's taking Mr. Negi so long…?"

* * *

 **Pactio Partner Number Eighteen: Murakami Natsumi**.

 **Pactio Partner Number Nineteen: Naba Chizuru**.


	6. Special Chapter 2

Akamatsu Ken and Kodansha created and own _Mahou Sensei Negima!_

Yamaguchi Noboru and Media Factory created and owned _Zero no Tsukaima_.

Yabuki Kentaro, Hasemi Saki and Shueisha created and own _To Love-Ru_.

* * *

 **Twenty Five Other Times Negi Made a Pactio**.

* * *

 **Special Chapter: Enemies of All Mankind, Assemble!**

* * *

 **Act One**.

* * *

"There is something I have to tell you," Siesta said. She was well aware she was starting that conversation in what had to be one of the worst possible ways. On the other hand, she couldn't help phrasing herself that way. She had Springfield blood in her veins, after all.

The black haired boy, barely any taller than her, in blue jeans and an old white and light blue sweater sitting across the small table at the back of the grocery store nodded. "Okay, what is it, Siesta-chan?"

For a moment, she pondered how to reveal the truth to him, or even if she should, although it probably was too late for backing away. After all, she was no mage or was recognized as such, so technically they couldn't turn her into an ermine. On the other hand, they could swipe her and Saito's memories, ship her back to Mundus Magicus, and jail her away if the Immigration Program ever learned about this. Still, the Idiot Hero genes in her finally won, and she said…

"Umm, Siesta-chan, I'm kinda waiting for that thing you were going to tell me, you know," the young man said, with his usual awkward lack of tact, interrupting what Siesta was about to say before she could even start saying it. She did a very quick and short, blink-and-you-miss-it facefault on Hiraga Saito's table, then pulled herself back up and hastily tightened the collar of her maid uniform, the one she always wore to go buy the groceries for the Yukihiro Manor. It netted her a consistently high rate of discounts in most stores ran by men.

"I'm the illegitimate daughter of a wizard, the most powerful mage in the Magical World I come from!" she forced herself to say, clenching a wide, bright smile from ear to ear and securing it into place. "It's something I learned a while ago, but I wasn't sure how to tell you, so I had been stalling on it for weeks, I'm so sorry!"

Saito blinked a few times, his face slowly but steadily losing color from the moment the word 'wizard' had been uttered. After Siesta stopped talking and nervously waited for his reaction (fixed smile still holding on desperately), he turned wary, wide brown eyes to the calendar on the wall, checked it wasn't April's Fools, then looked at Siesta again. "Would you mind repeating that, please?"

"I'm the daughter of Nagi Springfield, a powerful hero from my homeworld, a magical alternate dimension," Siesta patiently said, carefully studying Saito's stupefied expression while inwardly chewing herself out over being stupid enough as to bring the subject up. "That, that doesn't mean I'm a mage myself, and it doesn't really change anything about our, about our relationship, but I thought it was just fair, you should know all the same… you know…"

The busty young woman blushed deeply, crossing her hands over her lap and then staring intently at her intertwined feet, which shook so much she just hoped they weren't a sign of what was happening to the rest of her body right then.

"… okay," Saito said, his voice very small and troubled.

Siesta blushed even further and flustered. "I, I, I know I must sound like I'm crazy, but I'm not! And I'm not kidding you, either! Please believe me!" she begged. "Just think of all the extraordinary things that have been happening all across the world over the last few years, and then ask yourself if they are that much more unbelievable than, than the existence of magic!"

He gulped, clearly torn between panic at her reaction, bafflement at her sudden despair, and something else. "You, you mean, like the superheroes and all that? W-Well, okay, that's all out-there and such, I guess, but all those things have scientific, logical explanations! I think. You sure that father of yours isn't a mutant who spun a wild story about being a wizard to you?"

"Saito!" she said. "I'm serious! And I said I came from that world of magic myself, remember! I've known about it long before I ever learned who my father was!"

"… Alright, then," he gulped, further sinking into his mixture of conflicted emotions.

She sighed, rubbing two fingers in circles on her forehead. "I knew this would happen. The magical field set around the city will make its inhabitants unwilling to believe in magic, even in the face of other clearly paranormal and superhuman incidents happening around them."

Saito blinked, unable to stop picturing a tinfoil hat on Siesta's head at the moment.

"I see I'll have to convince you the hard way, then," she calmly said, in a stark contrast to how agitated she had been minutes ago. Now she had actually said it and he hadn't outright called her insane to her face yet (even if he was thinking it, no doubt) she felt like the rest was easy. Comparatively speaking at least. "Just wait a moment, please."

Very quietly, he nodded while watching her, curious as to what would she do next. Part of him hoped this was some sort of frisky roleplaying. He liked it a lot when girls did that in adult movies, and unconsciously he crossed his legs under the table, feet pointing at each other. His nose twitched.

Closing her eyes, Siesta pulled a piece of chalk from a pocket on her white apron, then crouched down to start drawing something on the backstore's floor. "I'm not sure if this will work," she warned. "I've seen actual mages doing it while I worked at Ariadne Academy, and since I learned on my heritage, I've studied a few books Yukihiro-sama was kind enough as to lend me. She says I should be able to pull this off, as Nagi Springfield's daughter, but, well…" she sighed melancholically, "I've never actually tried doing it. I wanted you to be my first, Saito."

Okay, now this definitely was roleplaying, and Saito grew more excited and willing to play around by the moment. He smiled lecherously despite himself, unaware of how goofy he was looking. Siesta stood back from the complicated circle covered by runes she had just completed, looked at Saito's face, and frowned slightly at him. This made him drop the goofy smile, replaced by uneasiness, but in turn that made Siesta smile at him again. She grabbed his hands and pulled him to herself, with a strength that surprised him, and made him stand face to face with her, on the circle that was now starting to… glow faintly?

"What…" the boy babbled, trying to look down and make sense of what was happening, but she grabbed his cheeks and forced him to be eye to eye with her.

"My face is up here, Saito," she sweetly said, using the sentence for the first time in a context unrelated to her breasts. Then, satisfied, she brought his face to hers and kissed his mouth deeply, forcefully.

The small room, smelly of vegetables and fish, seemed to explode into white light just as soon.

* * *

"Okay, you've convinced me," Saito nodded, looking at the card now in his right hand. "There is such a thing as magic."

Siesta giggled softly and nodded, her chest bouncing slight and delightfully under the tight black shirt. "I'm so glad I could share this wonderful secret with you, Saito! Aren't you happy, too?"

"Um, yeah, of course I am!" he quickly said, then scowled at the card, with an eyebrow trembling. "But, are they all supposed to be this silly looking…?"

"Oh, no, of course not," she answered. "It's just, well, like I told you, I'm no mage. The best I could aspire to you as your Magistra Magi was to get a Suka card!"

Saito nodded again, absently, staring at the Super Deformed image of himself as a stupid looking down sitting miserably, with a thick red collar around his neck.

 _Hiraga Saito_

 _Canis Imbecilis!_

Somewhere in Mundus Magicus, Louise Francoise de la Valliere sneezed violently, then angrily rubbed her tiny, pointy nose.

* * *

 **Act Two**.

* * *

"So..." Haruna murmured evilly, rubbing her chin even more evilly while her glasses fogged up the most evil of all, "Negi-kun's sexy sister got to make a Pactio despite not being a mage! Hu hu hu, then you and Lala-chin gotta make a Pactio as well, Rito-chan!"

"You're aware that only worked because that girl is, like half mage herself, aren't you?" Rito asked, swallowing hard.

"Eh," Skuld shrugged, "if it's only to get yourself a Suka, there's a chance it'll work in your case as well. Devilukeans are, after all, distant descendants from actual Venusian demons, so there should be enough magical lineage in the blood of a pure Royal House member as to generate a Suka."

"But I don't wanna!" Rito protested. "Why would I ever want a dumb card that only will turn me into a helpless little animal!?"

"I like cuddling up to helpless little animals," Haruna shared.

Chamo opened his mouth into a wide grin.

"As long as they're cute," Haruna amended.

"But I *am* cute!" Chamo whined.

Rito blinked, his nose twitched, his face changed colors several times, his eyes expanded and shrunk back and forth a few times, then stiffly turned back to face Lala, who had been watching the exchange with a curious expression on her face. "On second thought, if Haruna-chan wants it so much, who am I to disappoint her innocent, sweet hopes? What kind of man would I be then? I'm willing to try, I suppose."

Lala nodded and smiled. "Alright!"

Skuld grimaced. "You're kind of a pitiable person with little knowledge of the term 'dignity'." Whether she was telling that to Rito or Lala was not clear, but no one bothered to ask.

Chamo pouted and turned around, folding his fore paws before his chest. "Well, I'm glad for you, but find yourselves another broker for that. I only arrange kisses, I mean provisional alliances, for my Aniki."

"But, those ermine dollars?" Haruna asked.

"Albert Chamomile's principles and his adhesion to the Bro Code are not to be broken over the meager payment from a Suka!" the ermine vehemently declared, in a tightly offended and wounded tone.

"So you *would* do it over the price of an average Pactio?" Skuld asked, frowning.

Chamo began gnawing on his lower lip frantically. "That... That question is moot in this context anyway! The gentleman *and* the entrepreneur in me don't have to answer to you!"

"Oh, come on!" Haruna protested. "I'm glad you're loyal to Negi-kun, but aren't you overdoing it now? It's not like you'd be betraying him! There's nothing going on between Lala-chin and him! What, do you think Negi-kun is entitled to every last woman on Earth and beyond?"

Chamo stared blankly at her.

Haruna sweatdropped. "You're a very twisted little creature in need of help, and I don't say these things lightly. Fine, suit yourself! Sku-chaaaaan! You draw the circle, then!"

Skuld extended an open hand. "I want thrice the ermine's broker fee."

Haruna tossed her hands up and walked away. "I'll go find Siesta-oneesan, guys. Lala-chin, hold Rito in the case he starts having second thoughts."

"Actually, now that you say it, maybe—" Rito dubiously said before Lala tightly grabbed him from behind.

"What? What a penny pincher!" Skuld protested. "You don't think a Pactio arranged by an actual goddess is worth that much more than one set up by a chain smoking weasel?! It's not like the Devilukes can't pay it!"

Haruna just waved back at her over her shoulder, without looking back. "Sorry, Sku-chan, but your valid points aren't going to get in the way of what my mother taught me on the value of money!"

* * *

"Okay, make your long story short, then," Chisame snorted. "Did it work, or not?"

Haruna scratched the back of her head and laughed. "Ah ha ha, you'll see, it worked, but not the way we had expected..."

"So the Magister ended up being Yuuki-san instead?" a confused Negi asked. "Um, maybe it's just because Nee-san is still a novice at—"

"No, no, it isn't that either!" Haruna said. "Lala-chin turned out the Magistra, but actually, it seems Sku-chan, if anything, underestimated her demon heritage! Rito-chan got a real card after all!"

"No way," Chisame said.

"That's excellent, Haruna-san!" Negi beamed, perhaps a bit too enthusiastic. "Truly, Lala-san is full of surprises!"

"She is, but..." Haruna pouted a little, "for some reason, Rito-chan isn't too terribly impressed by what he got..."

* * *

"Don't get me wrong," he kindly told the plants he was watering, "I'm glad I could get this for you, and you've never looked any better, really! It's just, well, a man looks at what the other men around them got, and sometimes, a man feels sort of inadequate, do you know what I'm saying? True, this is my heart's calling, I guess, but what good is this to defend the other calling of my heart? What—"

"Rito?" Mikan blinked while walking out of the house with the basket of clothes ready to be hung to dry. "What kind of conversation are you having with the plants now? And isn't that new outfit a bit too...?"

Her brother, clad in a ridiculously old fashioned red and blue gardener's outfit, complete with thick boots and loose overalls, looked at her with half closed eyes, and said, "It's a gift from Lala."

"Oh," Mikan said, then looked at the watering can he was holding over the flowers, and the extraordinary size said flowers were reaching this morning. "That... That explains a lot, I imagine."

"Yes. Yes, it does."

* * *

 **Siesta's Pactio Partner Number One: Hiraga Saito**.

 **Lala Satalin Deviluke's Pactio Partner Number One: Yuuki Rito**.

* * *

 **Omake! Aim for the Head!**

Then, before anything else could be said, they felt something swiftly zooming through the suddenly cold air, flashing by past the girls and boys gathered at the Gateport, producing a short, tense sound as it flew. And before anyone could stop it, it had imbedded itself through Negi's forehead, piercing his skull and coming out the back of his head.

Gasping in horror, the girls screamed _"NEGI!"_ as one, while a shocked Itoshiki, Keiichi, Saito, Rito and Kotaro spun back to look at the abruptly appeared Sextum Averruncus, who stood at the other end of the chamber with an outstretched hand.

"... what?" she finally asked, her voice bland as ever. "Any of my brothers would have pierced him through the chest, but I'm a more advanced model. I'm supposed to learn from their design flaws!"

"We aren't questioning your technical logic or combat strategy, madam; we are questioning your target! If you were aiming for a head, that should have been mine!" Itoshiki lamented.

"... but we have got no problem at all with you. You weren't even at Kyoto to foil our plans back there..."

"I was Ala Rubra!" Itoshiki insisted. "Of course I merited an ice spear through the head!"

"You were?" Sextum asked, before the short hooded figure standing behind her whispered into her ear. "The Master of the Grave says kid tagalongs and pets don't count. And we make a point of never killing unless absolutely necessary."

Itoshiki blanched out, then walked away to stand at a corner, head hanging, too crushed to even go into a Despair Rant.

The other boys just stared at each other while the girls grieved.

"Okay," Kotaro said at last, "technically, this is still a Negima story at its core. So in the absence of the primary main lead, I, being the secondary Negima Ala Alba male member, become the de facto protagonist. You can't argue with that logic!"

"However," Saito cautioned, "I'm the only of us who is supposed to become a harem protagonist after being transported to a parallel fantasy world. So shouldn't I become the protagonist instead?"

"My fiancée can kick all your asses put together. So I'm the protagonist now," Rito quietly said.

The other boys stared at him, in sheer disbelief, only to find him nodding stoically. Cracking her knuckles at his side, Lala nodded as well.

* * *

"— and that's how your grandfather actually began his career as a hero out to avenge that Boya and save Mundus Magicus. There, now you know. Happy at last?" Yukihime grunted at Touta.

He grimaced. "Actually, I'm not sure yet. Are you saying that's why I keep falling on women, too?"


End file.
